Skadden has hired a trio of investment management partners from Akin across Abu Dhabi and Washington DC to boost its capabilities advising global asset managers, sovereign wealth funds, institutional investors and fund sponsors and managers.
Robert Griffin, an Akin veteran of 25 years, has joined Skadden in Abu Dhabi alongside Skye Smith, who spent a year at Akin as a partner having previously practised at DLA Piper. Meanwhile Kapil Vishnu Pandit has moved over in Washington DC after 16 years as a partner at Akin.
Griffin's practice focuses on international fund structuring, fund management, regulatory compliance and private placements, while Smith advises on institutional investor-side structuring and negotiation of primary commitments, co-investments, continuation vehicles, separately managed accounts and other bespoke arrangements.
Pandit's practice sits at the intersection of fund formation, strategic capital solutions and institutional investor advisory work, and focuses on sponsor-side private fund formation, structuring and ongoing operations.
Skadden's executive partner, Jeremy London, said the trio's experience "advising institutional investors on the full spectrum of fund formation activities across the Middle East, the United States and beyond complements our existing offering and will be of tremendous value to our clients."
Lorenzo Corte, the global head of Skadden’s transactions group, told Bloomberg Law the firm's investment management practice had been particularly busy with digital and traditional energy infrastructure work, with manufacturing and software also emerging as focus areas.
Skadden opened its Abu Dhabi office – its first in the Middle East – in January 2025 after hiring corporate transaction partner Michael Hilton, who was previously the regional managing partner at Freshfields. Griffin and Smith take the office's partner count to seven, and follow the relocation of litigator Bruce Macaulay from London in March and the promotion of corporate transactions lawyer Cheree King to partner in April.
The hire of the Akin trio also follows Skadden recruiting a pair of lawyers from Paul Hastings earlier this year to boost its debt financing deal work. Scott Heard joined in New York to leads the firm's private credit practice, while restructuring lawyer Matthew Murphy joined as a partner in Chicago.
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