Ropes & Gray PE partner duo exit in London

Senior private equity partners Dan Oates and Angela Becker have exited Ropes & Gray’s London office. 

According to Law.com, which first reported the exits, the duo are set to join Akin – marking a significant boost for the US firm’s transactional capabilities in the world’s second largest private equity market. 

The pair have spent the past three years at Ropes, having joined the firm in 2022 from Fried Frank alongside partner Simon Saitowitz, who left for Weil in April this year. 

In June veteran Ropes PE partner Helen Croke also moved to White & Case and was followed shortly after by counsel Laura Kayani and Nick Matthew, who made partner on the move. 

Going the other way, Ropes has pushed into European PE this year, opening its first office on the continent in Paris in March with a PE and banking team hired from Clifford Chance and another in Milan in September with a PE group recruited from Latham & Watkins.  

Oates had been global co-head of the private equity industry group at Ropes, where alongside Becker he advised CVC Capital Partners on the acquisition of UK medical software company Clevermed and Oxford Computer Consultants in 2023. Oates, whose practice covers cross-border acquisitions and leveraged buyouts, disposals, public-to-private transactions and minority investments, has also advised US investment firms AEA Investors and Francisco Partners, among other clients.

Meanwhile Becker’s experience includes advising the Mitsubishi UFJ Trust and Banking Corporation on the UK aspects of its acquisition of Australian pension administration firm Link Group in a A$1.2bn deal, as Japan’s largest banking group moved to grow its fund administration business. 

A spokesperson for Ropes & Gray said: "We can confirm that Dan Oates and Angela Becker have resigned from the firm. We thank them for their contribution to the firm and wish them well."

Reports that the duo will join Akin come the same week it emerged the longstanding head of the firm’s 160-lawyer London office, private equity partner Sebastian Rice, was set to join Nasdaq-listed telecoms firm Veon as general counsel.