Andrew Sagor of Baker McKenzie. Courtesy photo.

Debt finance lawyer Andrew Sagor has moved from Kirkland & Ellis to Baker McKenzie in New York, becoming co-chair of its North American leveraged finance practice.

Sagor, who said he's eager to help grow Baker McKenzie's market presence, said he was impressed with the firm's investments in leveraged finance and related practices including private equity and restructuring. Between Baker McKenzie's lateral growth in London and its hiring of dealmakers Mark Mandel from Milbank in April and Leif King from Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom in August, the firm was clearly committed to its strategy of growing core corporate practices, Sagor said.

"Those are two real heavy-hitters, partners who have been doing this for a very long time," said Sagor, who started at Baker McKenzie on Oct. 14. "It added credibility," he said, and the firm's emphasis on collaborativeness "was backed up by action."

He said he had a good experience at Kirkland and said its business growth, centered on its private equity work, inspired him to join a firm that was engineering a similar feat. He said he knew that if he had the opportunity to join a successful firm that had similarly made a major commitment to growing in the leveraged-finance space, "I would seize the opportunity."

Sagor said he tends to represent borrowers, but said the team he was joining had a wide array of experience working for sponsors and lenders, too. He estimated that about 60% of his work is driven by transactions with private equity firms and their portfolio companies, while the remaining part of his practice is driven by restructuring and bankruptcy as well as mergers and acquisitions.

"Baker is laser-focused on making significant investments in key financial centers in North America, particularly in private equity and its transactional practices," Sagor said, adding he expected it would continue.

He said Baker McKenzie's skill in the cross-border transactions area was especially attractive. While other top law firms often have to team up with foreign firms to get complex international deals done, he said, Baker McKenzie can do such work under one roof, mentioning as an example work the law firm had done for Bain Capital.

Sagor's move took place in the week of a Baker McKenzie partnership meeting in London. Hong Kong managing partner Milton Cheng has been named its global managing partner and just began a four-year term. Paul Rawlinson, who had been elected chair in 2016 and who died earlier this year after stepping away from his role following health issues, had been pushing the firm into transactional work.

Over the years, Sagor has advised on transactions ranging from the tens of millions to over $20 billion, including leveraged buyouts, acquisitions, secured debt, high-yield and other financing, workouts and restructurings and purchases of distressed debt, his new firm said. Sagor's co-chair atop the North American leveraged finance practice is Garry Jaunal, another Kirkland alum, Baker said.

"We thank Andy for his time at Kirkland and wish him well," said a Kirkland & Ellis spokesperson.

The announcement of Sagor's move to Baker McKenzie came the same week that Dechert announced it had added Lindsay Flora, another alum of Kirkland's debt finance team. That firm has said it is growing its own capabilities in private equity and adjacent practices.

Sagor has lately made the news for being among a group of conservative lawyers who have urged lawmakers to contemplate impeachment over revelations of efforts by President Donald Trump to pressure Ukraine to investigate the son of Joe Biden, one of his top political rivals.

Earlier in his career, Sagor worked for the State Department but said he was committed to his role at Baker McKenzie and said any return to government is "not in the foreseeable future."