Allen & Overy (A&O) has boosted its US leveraged finance capability with the hire of White & Case partner Jake Mincemoyer in New York.

Mincemoyer will assume the role of head of US leveraged finance at the Magic Circle firm, which has been investing in its US practice since 2016, when it hired five partners in New York, including a trio from White & Case.

Mincemoyer was regional section head of White & Cases's Americas debt finance team having spent 20 years at the New York firm, eleven as a partner.  

He advises banks, private credit funds and corporations on a range of leveraged and corporate finance transactions, including domestic and cross-border acquisition finance, investment-grade facilities, asset-based lending facilities, bridge facilities, debtor-in-possession financings and restructurings. He built up his experience of cross-border work during a significant spell at White & Case’s London office.

“It has been a strategic priority since 2016 to grow our Leveraged Finance practice, and with Jake’s preeminent market presence and excellent leadership, we are confident we can accelerate the momentum of our U.S. Leveraged Finance offering,” said Tim House, US senior partner at A&O.

Philip Bowden, A&O’s co-head of global banking, added that his experience of US and international leveraged finance made him “uniquely qualified to lead A&O’s US leveraged finance practice into its next stage of growth”.

Mincemoyer’s arrival helps compensate for the departure in 2019 of former US leveraged finance head Michael Chernick for Shearman & Sterling along with Alan Rockwell, one of the White & Case partners who climbed on board in 2016.

A&O was reported to have modified its lockstep to help it kick start it US leveraged finance practice in 2016 and Mincemoyer’s arrival follows reports last year of a further tweaking of the model. That move coincided with with the departure of a trio of leveraged finance partners in London to Cahill Gordon & Reindel, including then leveraged finance head Jonathan Brownson.

In January, A&O’s US leveraged finance practice celebrated  top-ten rankings – by value and volume – across 14 categories in Debtwire’s 2020 North American Leveraged Loans Legal Advisors’ League Table Report.

White & Case, meanwhile, was today celebrating a strong financial performance for 2020, with revenue up 9.3% to $2.38bn, according to Law.com, against a 16.1% increase in profits-per-partner to $3.02m.