Paul Hastings has boosted its London bench with the hire of a fund finance specialist from Simpson Thacher & Bartlett (STB).
David Richardson, who makes partner on the move, has spent the past four years at STB, having earlier practised at Kirkland & Ellis and Goodwin Procter and trained and qualified at legacy King & Wood Mallesons. He brings experience advising investment managers on establishing private credit, private equity, secondaries, real estate and infrastructure funds to his new firm.
Richardson’s practice covers fund formation and capital raising, with a speciality in structuring solutions for insurance capital, restructurings and investor-facing matters, as well as advising on internal management structures, carried interest arrangements and co-investment programmes.
At his former firm he worked closely with funds practice head Kate Sinclair and partner Katie McMenamin, a 2024 arrival from Travers Smith.
“David’s extensive experience across a range of transactions will be an asset to clients,” said Diala Minott, global co-chair of Paul Hastings’ investment funds and private capital practice. “[His] arrival emphasises our continued investment in top-tier talent to build a holistic platform across the full spectrum of the fund lifecycle.”
Richardson added: “The team’s market-leading capabilities offer an outstanding platform for advising clients on increasingly complex fund structures, and I look forward to contributing to the practice’s momentum and success.”
Richardson is Paul Hastings’ latest addition in the highly competitive fund finance market, following the hire of Serge Todorovich in New York in January from Shenkman Capital Management and Catherine Gokah in London last April from Kirkland & Ellis. Last November fund finance partner Jennifer Passagne also joined the London office from Haynes Boone, one of six partners to join the office in as many months.
Paul Hastings saw a slew of senior departures in London last year, however, including office co-head and private capital specialist Mei Lian, who left in August to join Linklaters. That followed leveraged finance partners Edward Holmes and Alexander Horstmann-Caines exiting for Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft and KKR respectively, while later in the year a tax duo including Arun Birla, who served as global second managing partner, defected to White & Case.
Nonetheless, Paul Hastings said London revenue had grown approximately 70% over the past two years and was projected to increase more than 20% year over year.
Richardson’s move comes as US law firms seek to capitalise on strong growth in the fund finance market; Paul Hastings’ chair Frank Lopez predicted the market would grow from $1.2trn to more than $2.5trn by 2030.
Paul Hastings’ team recently advised Intermediate Capital Group on launching the largest senior debt fund in the market at $17bn, and Pantheon on its $10.1bn private debt platform, one of the largest in Europe.
Last week, the firm also hired two fund finance teams from Haynes Boone and Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft to launch in Charlotte, including Haynes Boone partners Holly Loftis, Aleksandra Kopec and Mark Nesdill, and Cadwalader’s Danyeale Chung. Loftis and Chung previously practised together at Cadwalader, now set to merge with Hogan Lovells.
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