The London office of Latham & Watkins has continued its lateral hiring spree with the appointment of funds lawyer Tom Alabaster from major firm client the Carlyle Group.

Alabaster – who joins as a partner – was previously a senior counsel in the private equity house's New York office.

Alabaster worked at Slaughter & May in London and Hong Kong, before becoming a senior associate at Debevoise & Plimpton's New York office. He is Latham's fifth private equity hire in London in the space of a year.

Several of those hires have had significant links to Carlyle, which Latham counts as one of its major private equity clients, alongside KKR, Hellman & Friedman, BC Partners and Nordic Capital.

Former Clifford Chance (CC) global private equity practice head David Walker, who joined Latham last year, was the relationship partner for Carlyle at his previous firm. Since his hire, Latham has also brought in CC partners Tom Evans and Kem Ihenacho, both of whom have acted for the buy out house.

Recent mandates for Carlyle have included the acquisitions of Addison Lee and Chesapeake Packaging.

At Carlyle, Alabaster advised on fund formation, acquisitions, financings, restructurings, dispositions and deal structuring, as well as various EMEA regulatory and compliance matters.

Latham also brought in Weil Gotshal & Manges funds partner Nick Benson earlier this year.

London office managing partner Nick Cline said Alabaster's experience at Carlyle would help to develop the office's fund formation team within the broader private equity practice.

"A strong funds platform complements our existing PE practice in London, a key strategic market for the global private equity practice," added Dan Lennon, global chair of Latham's corporate department.