Covington & Burling has hired two partners from Kirkland & Ellis to serve as co-chairs of its private equity practice.

New York-based Amy Wollensack and Sergio Urias, both 39, joined Covington on Monday in the co-chair positions, succeeding Scott Smith, who leads Covington's corporate practice and was also the chair of its private equity group.

The Washington-founded firm has about 140 lawyers in its New York office and about 30 lawyers firmwide who work on private equity matters.

With a range of experience in middle market and large cap deals, Wollensack and Urias represent private equity sponsors in the acquisition and disposition of portfolio companies and investments. Urias, who practiced in Mexico before practicing in New York, also advises sponsors and clients in Latin America.

Their move comes shortly after the exit of four other private equity and M&A partners from Kirkland, George Stamas, Mark Director, Andrew Herman and Alexander Fine, who joined Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher this month. But Wollensack and Urias said their own exits from Kirkland were not related.

Wollensack and Urias said they were attracted to the opportunities a move to Covington presented. “When someone calls you and says, 'We have an opportunity for you to co-chair a practice group,' particularly at a firm like Covington, where the practice is stellar,” said Wollensack, “it's really hard to turn down.”

Besides the leadership role at Covington, Urias said he was also attracted to the firm's experience in Latin American deals and arbitration, as well as Covington's regulatory focus. He said the firm's strengths in these areas “would me give the ability to offer a wide range of services to my clients.”

Both said they were well familiar with Covington, having worked across the table with their lawyers on deals or observed their work over the years.

First joining Kirkland in 2007, Urias and Wollensack were promoted to partner in 2012 and 2013, respectively. Wollensack was co-chair of Kirkland's Diversity Leadership Series Planning Committee and a member of Kirkland's Women's Leadership Initiative Planning Committee.

The pair said they anticipate clients to join them at Covington. “We feel very strongly that they will,” Wollensack said, noting their clients were “excited about [Covington's] platform” and caliber of attorneys.

Wollensack has represented private equity clients including ICV Partners, Monomoy Capital Partners, ABRY Partners and Lincolnshire Management in acquisition, sale and investment transactions.

In his buyout experience, Urias has represented outdoor advertising company Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings Inc.; Murray Energy Corp.; TZP Group; the Gordian Group, a portfolio company of Warburg Pincus; and Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe.

Besides the Gibson Dunn and Covington teams, other law firms have announced new hires from Kirkland in the last month. For instance, Selendy & Gay, the new litigation shop launched by a group of lawyers from Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, said on Tuesday that it had added David Flugman, who spent more than a decade at Kirkland. Flugman focuses on fiduciary duty and securities litigation, business tort and commercial disputes and insolvency litigation.

Exiting from Kirkland's Chicago office in the last month, Matthew Hays joined Dechert in its global finance practice and Dean Bachus joined Jones Day in its employee benefits and executive compensation practice.