UK magic circle firm Allen & Overy has added a private equity partner in Los Angeles from Winston & Strawn as it continues its eye-catching push into the US market. 

Joshua Birenbaum advises clients on complex matters related to both public and private companies and across M&A, leveraged buyouts, joint ventures, strategic acquisitions and equity financings. His experience covers industries including technology, consumer products and services, manufacturing and healthcare. 

Birenbaum has joined A&O after almost nine years at Winston and is the firm’s 48^th lateral partner hire in the US in the last two years. Earlier he was an adjunct professor at USC Gould School of Law and had stints at Kirkland & Ellis and as a consultant at IBM. 

“As we continue to grow our private equity practice, Josh’s expertise strengthens our offering and ability to service our clients operating across the US while building on our US M&A and leveraged finance capabilities,” said Tim House, US senior partner. 

A&O’s US private equity team currently houses 14 mainly New York-based lawyers according to the firm’s website and ranks Blue Road Capital, Bridgepoint and TDR Capital among its clients. 

A long-held ambition by A&O to grow in the US – which saw the firm hold protracted but ultimately fruitless merger talks with O'Melveny & Myers in 2018/9 – sparked into life when it opened in Los Angeles in early 2021 with the hire of a highly-rated six-partner US project finance and renewables team from Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld.

House said at the time that while A&O’s West Coast expansion was in part because of California’s renewables market, the firm was also eyeing wider opportunities in the region, particularly related to technology.

Since then the firm has hired a seven-partner tech-focused team from White & Case to launch in Silicon Valley and San Francisco and also built on the East Coast with the hire of a five-partner life sciences IP litigation team from Goodwin Procter to set up shop in Boston, bringing its Stateside office count to six. 

And the investment appears to be paying off, with the firm saying an ‘exceptional’ US performance contributed more than half of the 10% revenue growth it saw in the year ending 30 April, when fee income hit £1.94bn. 

Birenbaum has joined A&O’s Los Angeles office as its tenth lawyer and sixth partner. Last month the firm added funds partner Zeeshan Ahmedani to the office from Goodwin Procter, while other recent arrivals on the West Coast include IP litigator Lisa Nguyen and corporate partner Jesse Debban, who joined in Silicon Valley from Latham & Watkins and Farella Braun + Martell respectively.