Weil has hired six private equity lawyers from Latham & Watkins in Germany over the past week, as it moves to build a leading pan-European private equity team.
Weil announced last week it had hired partners Sebastian Pauls and Susanne Decker from Latham, and on Tuesday (7 October) said it had recruited four further members of their team. Andreas Holzgreve and Julia Schöfer have joined the firm as a partner and counsel respectively having been associates at Latham, with two associates also making the move.
“The European private equity market is transforming rapidly where real value creation is the priority above all else,” said Marco Compagnoni, Weil’s co-head of private equity. “Weil’s ambition is to be the foremost pan-European private equity team in this new era. The most innovative advice can only come from extremely high levels of skill and experience – attributes this team has in abundance.”
Pauls is a PE dealmaker based in Munich and practised at Clifford Chance and Sullivan & Cromwell before joining Latham in 2011. During his time at the firm he worked on deals including advising Allianz Capital Partners on the creation of a joint venture with Telefónica and the Carlyle Group on the acquisition of the GBTEC group.
Pauls is set to become co-managing partner of Weil’s German offices at the end of the year, working alongside partner Britta Grauke. He will succeed Gerhard Schmidt, who has held the position for more than two decades and will leave the firm at the end of the year.
Meanwhile Decker, who is based in Frankfurt, advises international private equity firms and their portfolio companies on cross-border M&A transactions. She has been a partner at Latham for the past five years, having joined the firm in 2015 as counsel from Clifford Chance. At Latham she worked with Pauls on the GBTEC deal and also advised Hg on a number of matters, including the acquisition of the MediFox Group and its investment in automotive data services provider Eucon.
“The strategic significance of these hires in the longer-term development of Weil’s German operation cannot be overstated as we help clients face a new world of opportunity and challenge,” said Grauke. “This is just the start as we look to further grow private equity along with other key practices, most notably restructuring where Weil is a global leader.”
The hires swell Weil’s German practice to 11 partners across offices in Frankfurt and Munich, including seven in the firm’s private equity practice.
Latham’s German practice is larger, with 50 partners across four offices, 13 of whom practice across PE and M&A. The firm had a role in each of the three largest PE deals in Germany in the third quarter, including advising Apollo on its €3.2bn investment in a new joint venture with Rwe, Germany’s largest power producer.
A Latham spokesperson commented: “It’s been a banner year, with our team advising on a number of big-ticket deals in Germany, across Europe and globally. With our positive momentum and deep bench of dealmakers, we expect to finish the year strong.”
Weil also boosted its PE practice in London in April with the hire of secondaries specialist Simon Saitowitz from Ropes & Gray. Partner Simon Caridia, who focuses on debt financings for infrastructure M&A and private equity transactions, also joined the office from White & Case in January.
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