Goodwin Procter has expanded its private equity platform with two partner-level lateral hires in Washington DC and Santa Monica. 

Andrew Kimball has joined the firm from Kirkland & Ellis in DC, while Andrew Cheng has moved over from Gibson Dunn in Santa Monica, the firm said. 

Kimball spent a decade at Kirkland in New York, including three years as a partner. He specialises in structuring and negotiating acquisitions and divestitures, minority investments, leveraged buyouts and financial restructurings. 

Cheng, meanwhile, spent 18 years at Gibson Dunn in Los Angeles, according to his LinkedIn profile. He regularly represents corporate borrowers, private equity sponsors and lenders in acquisition financings, royalty financings, special-situation financings and other complex leveraged finance transactions. 

Jennifer Bralower, chair of Goodwin’s debt finance practice, said Cheng’s “significant experience in navigating financing structures and sources of capital” would be “an immediate benefit” to the firm’s clients. 

“[Cheng’s] royalty financing and convert experience coupled with Andrew Kimball’s proven track record and substantial experience structuring a broad array of private equity transactions will add depth to our platform,” she added. 

Goodwin’s wider private equity practice includes 97 partners and more than 300 lawyers according to the firm’s website. With the latest hires, the firm has five private equity partners based in Santa Monica and eight in DC. The firm added to its private equity platform in New York last summer when it added Matthew Gruenberg from Schulte Roth & Zabel and hired corporate partner James Moriarty from Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel. 

Goodwin has also been focusing on building its private equity platform in Europe – launching an office in Munich last month to support the growth of its private equity work in the region. The office is led by private equity specialist Jan Schinköth, who was hired by the firm in Munich last May from Sidley Austin. 

Schinköth’s hire followed Goodwin adding a five-partner private equity team from Sidley in London in the autumn of 2020. The group was led by Erik Dahl, former managing partner of Sidley’s Munich office and co-leader of its global private equity practice, and Christian Iwasko, who had been co-head of Sidley’s European corporate and private equity group. 

 Goodwin’s London head of private equity, Richard Lever, said at the time that the hires were part of an ongoing five-year expansion of the firm’s practice into high-value, complex private equity that also saw the firm add Carl Bradshaw from Kirkland & Ellis and former CMS private equity head James Grimwood. 

Goodwin topped Refinitv’s global M&A legal advisor rankings by deal volume for 2021, having worked on 294 transactions – 87 more than second-placed Kirkland & Ellis.