Eversheds Sutherland has hired a three-strong funds team in Paris from Willkie Farr & Gallagher, as the UK-founded firm continues to invest in its European platform.
Partner Tiana Rambatomanga has joined the firm after just under five years at Willkie Farr to establish and lead its fund structuring practice in Paris. Moving over alongside her are an associate and a legal officer.
The team's hire strengthens Eversheds' ability to provide integrated and international asset management expertise, the firm said.
It follows Eversheds hiring funds lawyer Codrina Constantinescu as a partner from A&O Shearman late last year to lead its funds practice in Luxembourg. She and Rambatomanga are expected to deliver an integrated offering for European GPs through a Franco-Luxembourg team of at least eight professionals, with expertise in fund structuring and distribution, the firm said.
"Tiana’s arrival is the latest step in the continued build-out of our European funds and private capital platforms," said Michaela Arter, Eversheds' European head of financial services sector.
"Paris is a pivotal market, both in its own right and in how capital is structured and deployed across the region," Arter said. "Bringing in a team of this calibre strengthens our offering at the front end of capital deployment. It also signals a clear view on where the market is heading, the growing client appetite for more integrated European capability and the competitive role we continue to play within this space."
Rambatomanga has nearly 20 years’ experience in structuring, fundraising and organisation of investment funds across the full spectrum of private assets, including private equity, private debt and infrastructure.
She brings a track record in establishing French, Luxembourg and pan-European structures, covering strategies including LBO, venture, mezzanine, secondary, real estate, fund of funds and master-feeder structures. She also advises on regulatory aspects relating to investment funds and advises institutional investors, family offices, sponsors and managers in their French and international primary investments, as well as in secondary transactions.
The team's arrival also coincides with that of partner Anne Servoir, a specialist in pharmaceutical and regulatory law who joins the commercial advisory team in Paris from European IP firm Hoyng Rokh Monegier.
Alexander Niethammer, Eversheds' European managing partner, said Rambatomanga and Servoir boost areas in which the firm has been investing across Europe.
"Tiana’s arrival adds real weight to our private capital offering, while Anne brings a depth of pharmaceutical regulatory experience that is hard to replicate," he added. “What matters to us is having the right people in the right places, with the credibility to lead in their markets. We have an ambitious vision for our European business, and few firms are positioned to bring together this combination of sector expertise and cross-border capability. These appointments reflect that direction.”
Law firms are heavily expanding their investment funds and private equity practices in Paris to capitalise on a boom in French private capital. In April, Gibson Dunn & Crutcher hired a seven-strong investment funds team in Paris from Clifford Chance, while in January, Ropes & Gray made a twin partner hire from Linklaters to boost its European private funds and tax coverage.
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