Akerman, seeking to round out its middle-market M&A and private equity practice, has hired Ted Rosen, who was an administrative partner for Fox Rothschild's New York corporate and public companies practices and co-chair of that firm's private equity group.

Rosen, who joined Akerman on Monday as a corporate partner, advises companies and private equity funds in mergers, management buyouts, recapitalizations and growth strategies, as well as in matters related to structuring, organization, governance, financing, employment and compensation.

While Am Law 50 firms have dominated the private equity market for deals of $500 million and more, Rosen said, “there's an enormous opportunity” for lower and middle-market private equity transactions for firms in the second half of the Am Law 200.

Rosen said Akerman's corporate group focuses on deals in the lower middle to middle market, generally from $20 million up to about $500 million in value.

Highlighting the opportunity, Rosen said he recently spoke with a potential client who paid $2.5 million in legal fees to an Am Law 50 firm. He said his response was “that's just not right.”

“There's a tremendous need for high-quality firms to do sophisticated work at competitive pricing,” Rosen said, adding he was attracted to Akerman's established private equity platform with “excellent rates.” He declined to specify hourly partner rates in Akerman's practice, but said his experience is that Am Law 30 firms “charge anywhere from one to two times more on fees than a firm like Akerman.”

His prior firm, Philadelphia-founded Fox Rothschild, announced in February that it had “formalized” a nationwide private equity practice representing private equity funds, institutional investors and portfolio companies in transactions. Rosen said he was head of the firm's private equity practice for a couple of months before choosing to leave for Florida-based Akerman.

Addressing his decision to leave Fox Rothschild, Rosen said he asked himself, “do I build it at Fox Rothschild, or do I go to a firm that already has it built out? Based on the opportunities in the market and quality of practice at Akerman, I felt it was time in my career to make that pivot.”

“It's not easy to build a private equity practice,” Rosen said. “It's very hard getting high-quality private equity lawyers in this competitive market and Akerman has done it.”

He noted the firm has tax and debt finance specialists, and this year it hired Robert Stein from Kirkland & Ellis as co-chair of its corporate finance and lending practice. Akerman has also introduced a recent report on the private equity industry.

A firm spokesman said more than 100 attorneys at Akerman work on private equity matters.

Rosen said leaving Fox Rothschild was a difficult decision, but he confirmed he left on amicable terms.