Paul Hastings is adding Singapore-based Cooley partner Ferish Patel to its London office, according to a source familiar with the situation.
The source said that Patel, one of the founders of Cooley’s Singapore office, would be relocating to London as part of the move. Patel helped set up the Singapore office in 2020 and made an impact through his work in the venture capital and start-up community. He advises fast-growth companies, sponsors and investors on minority and control investments, joint ventures, buyouts and exits globally.
Before joining Cooley, he was the Singapore managing partner of specialist venture capital law firm Gunderson Dettmer, where he served for more than three years. He also worked at Davis Polk in Hong Kong and at Simpson Thacher in New York, the latter for eight years, undertaking short secondments with Indian law firms AZB and Amarchand Mangaldas during that time. He is qualified in the US and Hong Kong and is registered as a foreign lawyer in both London and Singapore.
The move follows intense efforts by Paul Hastings to bolster its London bench strength, having added 25 partners over the last two years. Those efforts followed earlier departures, most recently in February with a two-partner finance lawyer transfer to Sullivan & Cromwell, while former London co-chair Mei Lian moved to Magic Circle firm Linklaters in August last year.
Patel’s arrival follows that of investment funds partner David Richardson and a string of hires in deal-focused areas ranging from employee benefits to structured credit and fund finance, among others.
Patel will leave Cooley after six years, having further developed his practice around lifecycle representation for corporates across a full range of transactional activity, from late-stage private financings and growth capital to M&A, initial public offerings (IPOs) and regulatory and compliance matters.
Sectoral experience includes financial services and payment regulation, cybersecurity and data privacy, technology and life sciences, and equity incentive structuring. He is also known for his work mentoring technology and scale-up businesses for both Endeavour and Google in Southeast Asia.
Clients he has worked for include advising Flipkart on its $16bn sale to Walmart, Grab on its $4bn SPAC merger with Altimeter Growth, and Brookfield Private Equity, FinAccel and Nium on multiple growth and pre-IPO financings. IPOs he has worked on include Coupang’s $4.5bn NYSE stock listing and Freshworks’ $1.1bn Nasdaq debut, as well as a $260m capital raising package for Opthea.
The move will enable Patel to work with Paul Hastings’ list of private equity and asset management clients, including Apollo, Blackstone, Brookfield, Carlyle, Fortress, Goldman Sachs Asset Management, KKR, Morgan Stanley Capital Partners and Sixth Street Partners, among others.
Patel’s arrival follows Monday’s hire of tax partner Alicia Osei from Macfarlanes, marking Paul Hastings’ fourth senior tax hire in three months as it continues to build out its UK and global tax platform. It previously hired Jenny Doak and Catherine Richardson last year to replace exits to White & Case.
Cooley was approached for comment. Paul Hastings declined to comment.
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