Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld has added a quartet of private equity partners in London and New York from Sidley Austin to support the firm’s PE growth strategy.
The team includes US-based returnees Gerald Brant, Jeffrey Kochian and Brittany Harrison, alongside new London recruit Jonathon Hamill. The group specialises in the full spectrum of private equity, M&A and capital solutions transactions, with Brant named head of Akin’s US private equity practice.
Abid Qureshi, co-chair of Akin, said: “Private equity has become a multi-dimensional business, and the firms that lead will be those with the scale and integration to advise sponsors across strategies and structures. Gerald, Jeff and their team massively accelerate our private equity growth strategy. This is a defining addition for our platform.”
Brant returns to Akin after four and a half years, having left for Paul Weiss in 2021 and then moving to Sidley in 2023. He advises leading private equity firms on platform acquisitions, carve-outs, divestitures and high-stakes transactional and governance matters.
He said: “I came back to Akin to help build something – a practice defined by the complexity of the work and the sophistication of the clients. Akin’s capital solutions platform is built for that reality – and this is the most powerful opportunity in the market to grow a premier and complementary private equity platform that meets our clients’ capital solutions needs.”
Kochian left with Brant to join Paul Weiss and then later Sidley. Before joining Akin in 2008, he spent just over five years as an associate at Gibson Dunn & Crutcher and four and a half years at Cravath Swaine & Moore. He advises sponsors, public companies and financial institutions on control acquisitions, M&A, joint ventures, governance, capital markets and shareholder activism and defence.
Harrison followed the same path as Kochian and Brant, having joined Akin in 2015 straight after law school. She advises sponsors and their portfolio companies on control acquisitions, M&A and structured investments.
Hamill, meanwhile, joins Akin after just under five years at Sidley, where he made partner at the start of 2024. He was previously a senior private equity associate at Vinson & Elkins, having started his career at Taylor Wessing before moving across to Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft.
Dan Fisher, co-head of Akin’s capital solutions practice, said: “The most complex transactions today require counsel who can operate across the full capital structure – from control equity through hybrid capital and special situations. This team brings world-class execution and deep sponsor relationships to a platform already recognised for leadership in capital solutions and liability management.”
Brant, Kochian and Harrison are the latest group of lawyers to return to Akin, with the firm also welcoming back restructuring trio Neil Devaney, Lois Deasey and Matt Benson in April from Weil.
London’s private equity partner hire market had its busiest year on record in 2025, driven by a shift in how firms are building out their sponsor-side practices, according to a report by legal headhunters Macrae.
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