Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton has bolstered its private equity offering in London with the hire of a senior partner from UK Magic Circle firm Linklaters. 

Edward Aldred has joined Cleary after 20 years at Linklaters, where he trained and qualified and spent the latter five years as co-head of the financial sponsor leveraged finance practice.

His arrival follows Cleary hiring the head of Travers Smith’s private equity and financial sponsors group, Ian Shawyer, in London in January, which came hard on the heels of the hire of senior M&A partner Nick Rumsby from Linklaters last November. 

Since last November the Wall Street firm has also made up a UK litigation specialist and capital markets lawyer to the partnership and hired insolvency partner duo Solomon Noh and Alastair Goldrein from Dechert. 

That represents an eye-catching expansion of the firm's London team.

“We are delighted to welcome Ed to our firm,” said Cleary managing partner Michael Gerstenzang. “He is an exceptional lawyer who brings an incredible wealth of experience to our public and private M&A finance practice. He adds market-leading talent to our European corporate and sponsor-led PE practices and expands and strengthens our capabilities in leverage and event-driven finance.” 

Aldred advises private equity funds, corporates, family offices, sovereign wealth funds and investment vehicles on acquisition, infrastructure and other event-driven finance transactions, as well as minority stake, holdco and other structured finance transactions. He also advises clients on sell-side finance work and on-going portfolio work.

Recent work at Linklaters included advising Brookfield Asset Management on the financing of its £4bn UK P2P of HomeServe and Jacobs on the €4.4bn TLB financing of its bid for beverage manufacturer Refresco. 

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Aldred’s hire in London brings Cleary's partner count in the city to 30 amid a wider team of around 100 lawyers.

“This is an exciting time for the London office," said London partner Tihir Sarkar. "Ed’s arrival continues our strategy to strengthen our M&A/PE transactions practice with the highest calibre lawyers in the city. We are creating one of the strongest high-end offerings in the market, including the recent hires of Nick Rumsby and Ian Shawyer.” 

Over the past few months Linklaters has seen three more partners depart for US rivals in London: M&A lawyer Sarah Flaherty joined Weil Gotshal & Manges in January, the same month that global infrastructure co-heads Jessamy Gallagher and Stuart Rowson moved over to Paul Hastings. 

However, earlier this month it bolstered its private equity and financial sponsors team with the hire of Travers Smith partner Genna Marten.