Weil Gotshal & Manges has secured the hire of Goldman Sachs restructuring heavyweight Andrew Wilkinson in a boost for its European practice.

The move marks a return to private practice for Wilkinson, who was voted in by the partnership last Friday (4 April). He is set to join the firm's City office at the end of the month.

Wilkinson led the restructuring team at Clifford Chance before leaving in 1997 to launch and manage Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft's London operations. He was also head of European restructuring at the US firm.

He left Cadwalader in 2007 to join his former client Goldman Sachs as head of European restructuring.

Weil has said Wilkinson will "play a senior role" in developing the firm's European restructuring team.

The US firm's London managing partner Mile Francies said: "Andrew's arrival will enable us to continue to build on the excellent work of Adam Plainer and his team in London. His skills as both a lawyer and a banker will be instrumental to the further development of our elite restructuring practice."

Other notable hires in the firm's restructuring practice in recent years include Jones Day restructuring chief Plainer, who joined in 2011 as practice head at the London office.

Weil has scored several key restructuring mandates in recent years including a role on the UK administration of MF Global, representing company administrators KPMG.

The firm has also been involved in ongoing restructuring work around the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy.

In Europe, Weil has acted for German wood-based product manufacturer Pfleiderer on its cross-border financial restructuring and on the €2 billion debt restructuring for Mediannuaire, owner of the French directories and internet group PagesJaunes.