Photo by Diego M. Radzinschi/ALM

Katherine Krause, a managing director in Goldman Sachs' legal department, is joining Simpson Thacher & Bartlett as a partner in its mergers and acquisitions practice in New York, the firm said Tuesday.

Krause is one of several M&A hires at Simpson Thacher this year. She's also one of the latest in a string of partner hires among private-equity focused law firms in the last two months, despite the marked slowdown in M&A deals—showing that the pandemic has not erased firms' appetite for top dealmakers.

Simpson said Krause, as a managing director in Goldman's legal department, was responsible for supporting its merchant banking division for investments and dispositions in corporate equity and debt, infrastructure and venture capital opportunities. While at Goldman Sachs, a regular client of Simpson, Krause was a member of its merchant banking divison's infrastructure investment committee and the division's client and business standards committee.

Simpson said Krause will be an asset to its private equity clients. Marni Lerner, head of the firm's private equity mergers and acquisitions practice, noted she had a background advising on a wide range of deals in industries, including infrastructure and venture capital.

Bill Dougherty, chairman of Simpson's executive committee, said in a statement that Krause's breadth of transactional experience "will further enhance our ability to provide our private equity clients, whose interests span borders and industries, with sophisticated, cutting-edge legal advice."

In a statement, Krause praised the firm's "world-renowned" private equity M&A practice and the firm's "collaborative culture."

Simpson Thacher in February added Gregory Klein and Michael Kaplan in its M&A practice in Los Angeles. Joining from Irell & Manella, they represent private equity firms in domestic and cross-border transactions, focusing on middle-market deals. And in March, Simpson hired Ravi Purohit as a Houston partner advising on mergers and acquisitions, asset sales and joint ventures in energy and infrastructure. He arrived from Blackstone Infrastructure Partners.

In the last few weeks, a few other firms known for their private equity prowess have hired top talent, including Kirkland & Ellis adding Edward Lee from Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz and Latham & Watkins adding three deal lawyers from Kirkland, including Kate Withers, Neal Reenan and Ian Bushner.

The hiring comes amid a drop off in M&A. Global M&A activity for the first quarter of 2020 showed an overall decline of 28% from the same point in 2019, according to league tables from global financial data company Refinitiv.