Ropes & Gray secures three-partner private equity team

Ropes & Gray secures three-partner private equity team

Fried Frank Harris Shriver & Jacobson's Dan Oates, who heads Fried Frank's European PE practice, has joined Ropes & Gray as a series of private equity partners located in London

Oates' arrival will increase the number of partners in Ropes & Gray's London office to 33 of a total of 170 in-house lawyers, of which approximately 50 focus on private equity work.

The Boston-based firm's London hires continue a trend of 'impressive' progress throughout the year 2021. In addition to these new hires, the firm recruited four new partners internally within 2021 as well.

Fried Frank has brought Simon Saitowitz, made up in 2019 and Angela Becker, one of 12 new partners introduced this January, across with Oates, who joined the firm in 2015 from Kirkland & Ellis.

A few of the clients Oates advised at the New York firm during his tenure included 3i, KKR, Apax Partners and CVC Capital Partners. He served as the co-leader of the team that advised Permira on the $180 million funding round it led for UK tech firm GWI in February.

During the year, Ropes & Gray's London private equity team advised on a record of 105 transactions worth £97bn, according to the legal directory Chambers & Partners, which has an outstanding reputation for advising on high-end buyouts across the UK.

Acting managing partner of Ropes & Gray's London office, Jane Rogers stated that the firm has enjoyed an impressive trajectory over the past few years. Clients look to us for advice on their most important and complex matters.

Annie Herdman, an antitrust partner at the firm, joined Kirkland & Ellis in March 2022, Emily Brown, funds partner at Schulte Roth & Zabel and Dr. Lincoln Tsang, life sciences regulatory partner, also joined in 2021.

There has not been all one-way traffic, with the firm losing Judith Seddon, the global co-head of its government enforcement and white-collar practice, to Dechert in March 2022.

In addition, Will Rosen, the office head in London, has been on secondment at Bain Capital in 2021.

According to the Fried Frank spokesperson, London remained a strategic priority for the firm. The firm had seen "significant growth and cross-border client work in this area." She stressed that the firm was "committed to maintaining and strengthening our strong presence in London".

With the opening of our new Brussels office, we added our fifth office to our network and our third office in Europe along with our London and Frankfurt offices. A quintet of Wall Street colleagues from rival Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft joined the firm's New York and Washington finance teams in February.