Weil Gotshal & Manges private equity partner Douglas Ryder has left to join Kirkland & Ellis in New York, Legal Week has learned.

Ryder, who joined Weil alongside fellow private equity rainmaker Harvey Eisenberg from O'Melveney & Myers in 2011, left Weil over the weekend.

Meanwhile, Weil is this week set to announce the hire of Greenberg Traurig Maher (GTM) high yield lawyer Frank Adams, who is relocating from London to New York.

Adams was part of a 50-strong team of lawyers which moved from Dewey & Leboeuf's London and Warsaw offices in May 2012, alongside London-based corporate finance partner Federico Salinas.

The GTM shareholder – who was until last month in talks to join the London office of a US firm – is understood to have spoken exclusively with Weil's New York office, and has not been hired as a City replacement for high yield partner Gil Strauss, who left for Simpson Thacher & Bartlett last month.

For the private equity team, the loss of Ryder comes just months after Kirkland's hire of Weil's London-based banking head Stephen Lucas, who was also at the New-York headquartered firm for just three years.

Kirkland has made no secret of its intentions to take market share by hiring partners from prominent private equity firms with transferable client bases.

Earlier this year, it hired Simpson Thacher & Bartlett M&A partner and key KKR and Blackstone client manager Andrew Calder to launch the firm's Houston office, having previously landed Simpson M&A partner Sean Rogers in New York.

Ryder has previously advised private equity houses Apollo Management, CCMP Capital and Onex Corporation, as well as Kirkland marquee client Bain Capital.

While an associate at Cravath Swaine & Moore, he also acted for public and private companies including Ticketmaster, BAE Systems and Time Inc.

Neither Kirkland & Ellis nor Weil responded to requests for comment. Adams did not respond to a request for comment.