Jones Day has made a major push into the London high yield debt market with the capture of Ropes & Gray finance partner Jonathan Bloom.

Bloom, who joins Jones Day's capital markets practice on Wednesday (3 September), was one of the leaders of Ropes' global high yield practice and boasts a notable stable of funds clients including BlackRock, KKR Asset Management, and Vision Capital.

Qualified under New York law, Bloom will work alongside Jones Day finance partner Drew Salvest, who advises on a range of securities products.

"High yield remains an important area for our clients," said John Phillips, partner-in-charge of Jones Day's London office. "It's something we get asked about a lot here, and Jonathan will fit very nicely alongside our existing funds, M&A, restructuring and private equity practices."

Phillips told Legal Week he would be "surprised" if Bloom would be the only high yield partner addition to the London office.

Bloom was Ropes' first lateral hire following the launch of the Boston-headquartered firm's City outpost when he moved in 2009 from White & Case. He joined White & Case from Fried Frank Harris Shriver & Jacobson two years earlier.

While at Ropes & Gray, he acted on the financing of engineering company Doncasters Group, advising senior creditors, including Carlyle, GoldenTree, GSO, Investec, Silverpoint, Bank of Ireland and Cairn Capital. In 2011, he led for buyout houses Bain Capital and Hellman & Friedman on debt financing in the acquisition of Swedish security group Securitas Direct.

In London, Ropes partners Jane Rogers, Michael Kazakevich, and finance co-head Mike Goetz all advise on high-yield debt offerings.

Last week, the firm made a major signing of its own, with the hire of Travers Smith corporate rainmaker Phil Sanderson, less than two months after he stepped down as head of the firm's private equity practice.

Sanderson will become the sixth partner in Ropes' City private equity transactions group, including special situations practice co-head Peter Baldwin.

The hire is also the first addition to the London office since Ropes signed an agreement last month to double its office space and move into new premises at 1 New Ludgate in September 2015.