Sidley Austin has boosted its London private equity team with the hire of three partners from US rival Vinson & Elkins.

The arrival of Dan Graham, Paul Dunbar and Emilie Stewart restocks Sidley’s European private equity bench following the loss of six partners in London and Germany to Goodwin Procter over the last 14 months.

Graham and Dunbar have joined Sidley’s global M&A and private equity practice while Steward takes residence in the finance group.

Graham joined Vinson from Ropes & Gray as a counsel in 2015 before making partner in 2017. He has a broad-based private equity practice with a focus on advising sponsors operating in sectors including energy transition, renewables, power, infrastructure, technology, services, industrials and healthcare.

Dunbar was formerly a partner at Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft, before joining Vinson in 2016, and advises on private equity M&A, real estate private equity, distressed asset transactions, and non-performing loan acquisitions.

He was a lead partner on the Vinson team that last December advised SPAC TPG Pace Beneficial Finance on the $1.4bn acquisition of French electric vehicle smart charging specialist EVBox.

Stewart, meanwhile, spent 11 years at Vinson, making partner in January. She specialises in advising special situations sponsor clients on alternative capital investments, with a particular focus on heavily structured investments across debt and equity products. 

London managing partner Thomas Thesing said the trio would have “an immediate impact" on the firm’s private equity practice and shared many clients with Sidley.

Their arrival follows last year’s high-profile departure of five private equity partners to Goodwin Procter’s London office, led by Erik Dahl, formerly Munich managing partner and co-leader of Sidley’s global private equity practice, and Christian Iwasko.

In May, Frankfurt private equity partner Jan Schinkoth also jumped ship to Sidley’s US rival. 

Mergermarket placed Goodwin Procter and Sidley Austin in fifth and sixth place respectively in its H1 global M&A table by volume. Sidley advised on 193 deals valued at $115.8bn.