Goodwin grows Munich existence with private equity partner appointment from Reed Smith

Goodwin grows Munich existence with private equity partner appointment from Reed Smith

Appointment of Florian Hirschmann occurs less than a year after US firm entered Munich with Sidley Austin employs

With the appointment of partner Florian Hirschmann from Reed Smith in Munich, the highest 25 US law firm, Goodwin Procter, has grown its private equity group in Germany again.

Offering further its reach in a European hub for private equity, Hirschmann joins the firm eight months after it arrived the southern German city with the employment of partner, Jan Schinköth from Sidley Austin accompanied by an assistant.

Hirschmann will be resident in Munich remotely similar to Schinköth. With an experience of more than 15 years, advising clients in cross-border private equity, he has M&A and venture capital transactions to his new firm and specific know-how in German-Chinese investments.

Prior joining Reed Smith in 2018 and also as a partner in Munich at White & Case before, he spent four years in the Munich office of DLA Piper as a partner.

Hirschmann's experience with private equity investment managers domestically and on complex cross-border transactions made him "an outstanding fit and the ideal match to our existing team," stated by Erik Dahl, a London-based partner in Goodwin's private equity practice.

At the helm of a five-partner team of private equity specialists from Sidley Austin, Dahl himself joined Goodwin in September 2020. He had been managing partner of Munich and co-leader of the global private equity practice.

In Europe across its London, Frankfurt, Paris and Luxembourg offices, Goodwin now claims more than 150 private equity lawyers. In 2016, the firm's German team has developed to more than 40 lawyers working across the private equity, real estate, technology and financial service industries since introducing shop in Frankfurt.

According to Stephan Kock, chair of Goodwin's Frankfurt office, Florian is the latest renowned market leader to join their Germany team, who will highlight their promise to be the leading firm in the industry verticals in which their clients function.

He further added, "We look ahead, working with Florian as we carry on partnering with clients to shape their achievement and progress Goodwin's capital-meets-innovation approach."

Kirkland & Ellis is another US firm to increase its offering in Munich at a busy time for private equity recruitment. It added Dr Hendrik Braun as a partner in October 2021 from Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer. It came just a week after Kirkland appointed two partners, Vincent Bergin and Keir MacLennan of Freshfields' private equity rising stars in London.

In a bid to aim France's continuing mid-market private equity and M&A deal making successful, last week, a group of senior French lawyers with experience working at international firms announced that they had established their own private equity-focused law firm in Paris.