Kirkland, MoFo grow Hong Kong teams

Kirkland & Ellis added David Irvine to the firm’s Hong Kong office as a partner in the debt finance practice group. Irvine, a former Linklaters partner, has extensive experience on large cross-border leveraged and acquisition financing transactions, as well as on a variety of structured and secured lending transactions and restructurings.

Morrison & Foerster hired Jason Nelms as a Hong Kong-based fund formation partner. Formerly a partner at Proskauer Rose in New York, Nelms has more than 10 years of experience advising Asia-based and US sponsors and investors in the structuring and offering of private equity funds, real estate funds, hedge funds and co-investment vehicles.

MoFo also grew its team in London, adding Vladimir Maly as a partner in the corporate practice. Maly formerly worked at Latham & Watkins with Graeme Sloan, who defected to MoFo earlier this year to head up the corporate practice in London. Maly counsels credit institutions, corporations, private equity funds, high-net-worth individuals and sovereign wealth funds on M&A matters.

Ropes & Gray brought on the first antitrust partner in its London office, Ruchit Patel, formerly of Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton. Ruchit’s clients include technology, financial services, private equity, and healthcare firms, among others.

Ropes & Gray also added Weil, Gotshal & Manges counsel Jieni Gu as a partner in the firm’s M&A practice. She will be based in the Shanghai office in order to serve corporate clients in China with her wealth of experience in cross-border M&A, private equity, foreign direct investment, and general corporate matters.

The Washington, DC office of K&L Gates welcomed Jeff Cohen as a partner in the energy and infrastructure projects and transactions practice. Cohen, who joins from Troutman Sanders, advises on cross-border transactions, private equity, venture capital and joint ventures in the energy, telecom, mining, oil and gas, and manufacturing industries.

Brodies expanded its corporate team with the appointments of M&A attorneys Douglas Crawford and Helen Machin and funds specialist Karen Fountain. Crawford, who will head Brodies’ private equity team, has 25 years of experience in M&A and UK mid-market private equity transactions. Machin focuses on M&A, UK private equity, venture capital and management buy-outs and buy-ins. Fountain joins Brodies’ funds group after having been a key partner in Freshfields’ London funds team for 12 years. She has extensive experience in fund formation and regulatory issues.

Seyfarth Shaw added partner Eric Simonson to the firm’s corporate department in New York. Simonson, who joins Seyfarth from Blank Rome, has worked for more than 25 years on M&A, joint ventures, corporate finance, securities matters, technology transactions, and capital raising activities.

Christopher Bordoni became the third Ice Miller partner in New York, bringing with him a focus in corporate finance, including expertise advising private equity sponsors, corporate borrowers, real estate investment funds, and mezzanine and other debt providers.

Goodwin Procter welcomed back Luciana Aquino-Hagedorn following her stint as a senior vice president at Harvard Management Corporation. She will now be a partner in its financial institutions group in Boston, focusing on portfolio management, cross-border emerging market investments and investments in natural resources.

Weil, Gotshal & Manges boosted its private funds platform with the appointment of eight new partners: Garrett Charon and James Harvey in its private equity practice; Sachin Kohli in the M&A practice; Monty Ward in the private equity and M&A practices; David Irvine and Oliver Walker in its tax practice; and Faiza Rahman in the capital markets practice.

Goodwin Procter also added William Growney as a partner in its technology and life sciences practice in the Silicon Valley office. Growney has more than 20 years’ industry experience working as both in-house and outside counsel, and advises technology and other start-ups on matters involving financing, M&A, corporate governance, licensing/IP and privacy and data security. Growney comes to the firm from tech company RichRelevance, where he served as general counsel.

Sidley Austin expanded its New York office with the addition of Geoffrey Levin as a partner in the private equity practice. Formerly a partner at Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft, Levin concentrates his practice on representing private equity sponsors and their portfolio companies, as well as strategic M&A and governance matters involving corporate clients.

Dutch law firm Van Doorne boosted its corporate private equity team with the addition of former Stibbe lawyer Jeroen Sombezki. Sombezki will focus on cross-border M&A transactions in the Netherlands with a strong focus on mid-market private equity and venture capital transactions.

James Thompson joined Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton as a partner in the firm's corporate practice group, based in Los Angeles. Thompson, who focuses on M&A, emerging growth and private equity, joins from Snell & Wilmer. He is the tenth corporate partner to join Sheppard Mullin in 2015.

Loeb & Loeb added Rima Moawad in the firm’s New York office as a partner in the corporate department. Rima, a former partner at Haynes & Boone, represents public companies, private equity firms and management groups in domestic and cross-border M&A and restructurings.