Top 25 US firm McDermott Will & Emery has made a twin partner hire from Noerr and Latham & Watkins to boost its German private equity practice.

The duo are Holger Ebersberger, who was a partner at Noerr and joins as co-head of McDermott's German private equity practice, and Hanno Witt, who was a counsel at Latham. They will both sit in the firm’s Munich office. 

Ebersberger brings with him more than 15 years of experience advising private equity funds and strategic investors on M&A transactions, including public takeovers, auctions, carve-outs and joint ventures. 

He specialises in digital business, tech, media and telecoms, life sciences and healthcare. Witt, meantime, brings with him almost 12 years of experience advising buy-side and sell-side clients on M&A-related activities, including cross-border deals.

Jens Ortmanns, managing partner of McDermott in Germany, said: “With the addition of Holger and Hanno, we continue the strategic expansion of our transaction practice in Germany. They are an excellent fit for us, both professionally and personally.”

Ebersberger joins after just under five years at German firm Noerr, where he was a partner in its Munich office. He previously had stints at Ashurst, Linklaters and Gleiss Lutz, having started his career as a foreign associate at Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom in New York.

Ebersberger will co-head the German private equity group alongside Frankfurt-based Michael Cziesla: the former SJ Berwin partner joined McDermott in January 2017 after the collapse of King & Wood Mallesons' European arm. 

Witt, meanwhile, reunites with Ebersberger, the two having previously been colleagues at Linklaters. Since 2016, Witt has been with Latham, becoming counsel at the start of 2021.

The Munich arrivals are McDermott’s second European hires this week, following the addition of Mayer Brown’s former head of investigations Nicolette Kost De Sèvres. She joined in Paris, where she will co-head the firm’s global investigations and compliance group. In December, the firm also added a four-strong private equity team from Dentons in Paris, including partner Guillaume Panuel.

Back in November, the US firm also added a pair corporate partners in Frankfurt from Reed Smith. The duo – Rolf Hünermann and Philip Schmidt – specialise in domestic and cross-border M&A and other corporate and commercial law matters. Hünermann had previously founded Reed Smith’s Frankfurt business, where he was office managing partner.

McDermott has eight offices in Europe, half of which are located in Germany – Cologne, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt and Munich.