Paul Weiss has hired a funds partner from Kirkland & Ellis, as it continues to build out a top tier London practice around private equity. 

Jeremy Leggate is set to join the firm as a partner and co-head of European investment funds after seven years as a partner at Kirkland, before which he was as associate at Sidley Austin. 

He focuses on advising private investment fund sponsors on all aspects of the structuring and operation of alternative investment funds and has worked with clients including Apheon, Bowmark Capital and Highland Europe. 

Roger Johnson, co-head of the London office said Leggate had “led some of the most successful fundraises and complex transactions across Europe and the UK,” adding that his experience would make him an “invaluable” part of the firm’s transactional team.

At Paul Weiss Leggate will work alongside investment funds partner James King, another recent hire from Kirkland who joined the London office in April. 

Before last summer the highly profitable Wall Street firm had long been characterised as a sleeping giant in the City due to its lack of an English law practice and limited presence; the firm had been left with three partners in London at the start of August following former office head Alvaro Membrillera’s exit for Kirkland. 

That all changed a few weeks later, when news emerged of its hire of Kirkland heavyweights Neel Sachdev and Roger Johnson alongside three more Kirkland partners. 

Since then the office has continued to rapidly add partners from UK and US rivals under the direction of Johnson and Sachdev, its other co-head. More than 20 partners have joined since last summer, 12 of whom including Leggate hail from Kirkland. Linklaters accounts for four of its hires while its Magic Circle rival Clifford Chance has lost three partners. 

The impact of the firm’s raids have rippled through the market, with Kirkland, for example, having snapped up debt finance partners Vanessa Xu and Marwa Elborai earlier this year from Allen & Overy. 

Many of the recruits have joined Paul Weiss in leadership positions, including Sachdev and Johnson, who were credited with being the driving force behind Kirkland’s rise to the top of London’s legal market and at Paul Weiss co-chair the global finance and capital markets and global M&A practices respectively. 

The firm has focused on building a top-tier practice around private equity in London, with incoming partners practising across corporate, debt finance, tax and capital markets. But it is expected to use that platform to expand into other practice areas; late last month it added longtime Akin partner Liz Osborne to the office as head of European restructuring. Similarly sized Wall Street peers Simpson Thacher and Weil both have around 50 partners in London, which seems like a reasonable target. 

A Kirkland spokesperson said of Leggate’s move: “We wish Jeremy all the best.”