Squire Patton Boggs has hired a senior private equity partner along with a team of three associates from Spanish independent RocaJunyent as it continues to build its pan-European corporate bench.

Carlos Blanco Morillo joins the top 50 US firm after six years at RocaJunyent, where he led its Madrid corporate and M&A team and was office managing partner from 2017-20.

Moving across with Morillo are senior associate Javier Arenas and associates Elena Ferrer and Íñigo Oliván. Morillo focuses on M&A, private equity and venture capital in the Spanish mid-market having previously founded and led the corporate law boutique Blanco & Silva.

Paul Mann, European head of private equity at Squire Patton Boggs, said: “Carlos is a recognised private equity specialist with 15 years’ experience at the highest levels of Spanish domestic and international corporate transactions.”

Morillo is the fourth private equity partner to join Squire since the summer across its European network. Earlier this month, it announced the launch of a Dublin office headed by Dennis Agnew, who is joining from Pinsent Masons, and in October Linklaters managing associate Sascha Konwalski was recruited by the firm’s Frankfurt office as a partner.

In September, the Paris office snapped up a a three-strong team from French law firm Lamy Lexel, led by partner Arnaud Lafarge, previously co-head of Lamy Lexel's corporate practice.

Squire said its European private equity team had trebled over the last 18 months, with the corporate group now comprisesing more than 60 lawyers, of whom 35 are partners.

The Madrid office, meanwhile, has a total headcount of 75, of whom 20 are corporate lawyers. This is the third team raid by Squire in Madrid in the last 18 months. Last November, the US firm signed up private equity partner Teresa Zueco to lead the office. She joined from DLA Piper alongside a team of six lawyers. 

And in July 2021, RocaJunyent was once again a target when banking and finance partner Pablo Rodriguez Abelenda, of counsel Ana Bohorquez and associate Diego de Egea climbed on board.

Blanco said: “Squire Patton Boggs has shaken up the legal landscape in Spain and is now the emerging powerhouse for mid-market private equity and M&A in the region and across Europe. I look forward to being part of the team that takes it to the next level.

Squire is among a number of US firms that have been targeting the European private equity market in recent months. They include Boston-based Goodwin Procter, which opened an office in Munich in April as part of an ongoing recruitment drive.