Hogan Lovells and Mishcon take lead roles as KWM sues Goodwin and former corporate co-head Lever
Lawsuit follows six-partner team move from KWM's Paris office to Goodwin earlier this year
October 21, 2016 at 07:54 AM
2 minute read
King & Wood Mallesons (KWM) is suing former co-head of corporate Richard Lever and his new firm Goodwin Procter, following a series of partner moves to the US firm.
Goodwin and Lever have instructed Hogan Lovells, with employment partner Stefan Martin leading the firm's team, while KWM has turned to Mishcon de Reya, which is fielding a team headed up by employment head Daniel Naftalin.
The claim, which was filed in the Queen's Bench Division of the High Court on 16 May, is believed to be related to Goodwin's hire of a six-partner private equity team from KWM's Paris office in April this year.
The highly regarded team included the firm's Paris managing partner Christophe Digoy. It is understood the team accounted for a significant amount of KWM's European revenues.
Lever left KWM in May 2015 to join Goodwin and was later joined by fellow private equity partner Simon Fulbrook.
Lever is one of several high profile departures from KWM during the past two years. Fellow private equity heavyweight Tim Wright left for DLA Piper in May 2014, while former SJ Berwin corporate head Steve Davis left for Proskauer Rose in September that year.
The firm recently elected Australian partner Tim Bednall as its European managing partner and Frankfurt partner Michael Cziesla as its European senior partner.
KWM has also laid out plans to pay all outstanding profit distributions owed to its European partners for the 2014-15 financial year by May 2017, following a series of delays. Partners have until the end of next week to pay in more than £14m in capital to the firm, after 98% of its partners approved plans to recapitalise the firm in the summer.
KWM, Goodwin, Mishcon, Hogan Lovells and Lever all declined to comment.
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