Kirkland & Ellis has hired senior corporate partner Tobias Larisch from Latham & Watkins to open an office in Frankfurt. 

Larisch, who was regional chair of Latham’s corporate practice in continental Europe, will join Kirkland as a partner. The Frankfurt office will be the Chicago-based global giant’s second in Germany after the 50-lawyer office in Munich it opened in 2004. 

Larisch was a partner at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer before joining Latham in 2018. He advises global private equity firms, infrastructure funds and companies on M&A, public takeovers, joint ventures and carve-outs and at Kirkland is expected to help grow the firm’s transactional practice in Germany. 

“As one of Germany’s leading M&A lawyers, Tobias’s expertise and deal experience fit very well within the areas where we see increasing demand for our services,” said Jon Ballis, chairman of Kirkland’s executive committee. “Furthermore, opening a Frankfurt office will make available to us a new pool of leading legal talent looking to work on some of the most complex transactions in Germany.”

Larisch brings extensive experience in transactions involving the energy and infrastructure sectors and complex transactions involving listed companies. In April, He advised KKR on its strategic partnership with German renewable energy producer Encavis AG and has acted for E.ON on a number of deals including the sale of its waste-to-energy business to EQT. 

At Kirkland, he will work alongside Munich-based corporate partners like Benjamin Leyendecker, Philip Goj and Henrik Braun, who recently advised Blackstone and Rivean Capital as well as their Dutch portfolio company Enstall on the acquisition of German renewable energy business Schletter Group. Goj is also co-leading a Kirkland team advising longtime client TPG and Canadian investment group CDPQ on the €3.9bn acquisition of Aareal Bank’s prized property software unit Aareon. 

Leyendecker said Larisch’s hire would help Kirkland to build on its momentum in the German market and “create a destination office for lawyers practising in private equity and high-end M&A transactions in Frankfurt”.

Latham’s Germany bench has seen a number of partner departures this year. Capital markets duo Oliver Seiler and David Rath defected to White & Case in Frankfurt earlier this month, while in June restructuring lawyers Jörn Kowalewski and Ulrich Klockenbrink left to join Willkie Farr & Gallagher at the helm of an 11-lawyer team. 

Kirkland has also seen exits in Germany recently, with restructuring partner Marlene Ruf joining Milbank in Munich in April. 

Germany has been an active market for US law firms since the start of the year, the number of partners at top 100 firms having grown by 7%, according to publicly available data tracked by Pirical.

In February, Wall Street firm Willkie Farr announced plans to supplement its Frankfurt office by launching in Munich.

A Latham spokesperson commented: “We thank Tobias for his contributions to the firm and wish him all the best in the future.”