A raft of corporate heavyweights are acting on Clayton Dubilier & Rice’s (CD&R) €16bn acquisition of Opella, a subsidiary of the French pharmaceutical group Sanofi. CD&R will acquire a 50 per cent controlling stake in the business in one of the largest private equity deals in Europe this year. Kirkland & Ellis is leading for […]
Macfarlanes has hired a new partner from Freshfields for its private equity real assets team. Victoria Hills previously worked at Freshfields, where she was a corporate real estate partner. Hills joined Freshfields as a trainee in 2003 and was made partner in 2016. In her time at Freshfields, Hills gained experience in private capital and […]
Goodwin private equity partner James Grimwood is joining Debevoise & Plimpton, six months after a former colleague made the same move. Grimwood joins Debevoise after four years at Goodwin. Prior to that he was a longtime lawyer and partner at CMS, where he led the firm’s private equity group. Clients include Mayfair Equity Partners, LDC […]
Linklaters, with the former managing partner of Shearman & Sterling at the helm, is acting for long-standing client Rio Tinto in its all-cash acquisition of Arcadium Lithium. The magic circle firm’s transatlantic team was led by New York partners George Casey, Pierre-Emmanuel Perais and London partners James Inglis and Lisa Chang. The team was supported […]
The head of legal at Crane talks life at a VC firm, working on AI deals, and what he sees in VC’s future
Weil Gotshal & Manges has hired a new partner for its funds group, who previously held roles at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton and Kirkland & Ellis. Sophie Smith joins Weil as a partner, having been at Cleary for nearly three years as a counsel. Prior to Cleary, she worked at Kirkland for five years, […]
A&O Shearman and Eversheds Sutherland have both taken lead roles on the IPO of workplace wellbeing company Optima Health after its demerger from compliance software business Marlowe. Historic connections to Optima Health’s former parent companies won both firms a slice of work for their newly AIM listed client. Legacy A&O is a longstanding adviser to […]
Morrison Foerster and Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom are leading for longstanding client Visa in its acquisition of Cambridge-headquartered fraud-fighting outfit, Featurespace. MoFo is leading for Visa on the corporate side of the deal, while Skadden is advising on antitrust matters. MoFo’s deal team is led by London managing partner Andrew Boyd and corporate […]
Pinsent Masons is representing its longstanding client Everton FC on its sale to Friedkin Group. Blue Heaven Holdings has agreed to sell its 94 per cent stake in the Merseyside club, subject to approvals. Pinsents is leading for Everton FC, while Northridge is advising the seller and Proskauer Rose is on call for The Friedkin […]
Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison is acting for General Atlantic on its bid to acquire 100 per cent of French software company Esker. The Paul Weiss team is led by partners William Aitken-Davies and Dan Schuster-Woldan and associate Richard Bach. They were supported by French firm Bredin Prat. Aitken-Davies and Schuster-Woldan are recent joiners […]
Slaughter and May and Travers Smith are leading on Legal & General’s sale of its UK housebuilder, Cala Homes. Slaughters is leading for longstanding client L&G as it sells Cala to to Ferguson Bidco, a joint venture between Sixth Street Partners and Patron Capital. Slaughters corporate partner Victoria MacDuff is at the helm of the […]
Back in March 2023, Brown Rudnick had a real “Houston, we have a problem” moment. Its longtime client Wandisco – a software company that specialises in mass data migration to the Cloud – discovered “significant” and “potentially fraudulent irregularities”, hindering its cash position and status on the alternative investment market (AIM). A hectic few months […]