Clifford Chance poaches on private equity partners from Kirkland & Ellis

Clifford Chance poaches on private equity partners from Kirkland & Ellis

Lateral hires by global law firms are on the rise in German private equity hub following European M&A surge

The Magic Circle giant Clifford Chance has announced triple lateral hires from Kirkland & Ellis in Munich to consolidate its private equity practice. The firm had lost two partners to Wall Street firm Milbank recently.

Clifford Chance has hired Partners Volkmar Bruckner and Mark Aschenbrenner. They are to be joined by Senior Associate Samuel Frommelt.

Clifford Chance joins other international law firms to focus on the German private equity hub to strengthen its Munich team taking the lateral route.

Bruckner, a seasoned expert in advising private equity investors, management teams and corporations on complex regional and international transactions, with a particular focus on leveraged buy-outs, carve-outs and joint ventures, spent four years with Kirkland. He had a two-year stint at Weil, Gotshal & Manges and was associated with Latham & Watkins as a partner for seven years before that.

Aschenbrenner is a German business and corporate law specialist. He focuses on national and cross-border mergers and acquisitions and private equity transactions. He had moved to Kirkland from Linklaters as an associate and subsequently promoted as a partner in 2019.

Moving across with Bruckner and Aschenbenner is Senior Associate Frommelt, who specialises in advising private equity clients on investments in unlisted companies, public takeovers, co-investments and secondary transactions.

Peter Dieners, Clifford Chance's German managing partner, said the new additions reflected the firm's focus on strengthening its "important" presence in the German private equity hub, highlighting its intention to continue building out its private equity bench in the near future.

"The great new team joining us in Munich raises our private equity profile on the ground and will greatly contribute to providing our clients with even more power and expertise for the successful and secure realisation of their investments in Germany and Europe," Clifford Chance's German private equity group head Anselm Raddatz added.

The triple hire was necessitated as the Magic Circle giant had lost Markhus Muhs and Barbara Mayer-Trautmann, two of its partners in Munich to leading Wall Street firm Milbank, Shearman & Sterling in January. Milbank has returned to the Munich market after a seven-year absence.

Clifford Chance's German network presently has 300 lawyers, including 60 partners, across its three offices in Dusseldorf, Frankfurt and Munich.