Herbert Smith Freehills London office

Private equity funds veteran Jonathan Blake has joined Herbert Smith Freehills in the newly-created role of head of the firm's international private funds strategy.

He will be based in the London office as a consultant.

Blake had most recently been a consultant at O'Melveny & Myers before leaving the U.S. firm's London office last summer.

He had joined the U.S. firm's London office in January 2017 from King & Wood Mallesons, where he was head of international funds.

Previously, he was senior partner at legacy firm SJ Berwin from 2006 to 2012.

Blake is one of the U.K.'s best-known private equity funds lawyers. In the late 1980s, he negotiated the guidelines for the use of limited partnerships as venture capital investment funds with the Inland Revenue and Department of Trade and Industry, paving the way for the use of limited partnerships in European fund structures.

"Jonathan's solid experience and vast network of industry connections will be enormously valuable as we develop our private funds practice further," HSF head of investment funds Nigel Farr said in a statement. "Our private funds offering has grown rapidly in the last 10 years or so to cover more private funds work in private equity, real estate, infrastructure and credit.