Travers Smith has hired funds lawyer Tosin Adeyeri from Proskauer Rose as part of an effort to bolster its fund formation and secondary transactions work.

Adeyeri joins as a partner in the firm’s London asset management team and funds group. She arrives after three-and-a-half years at Proskauer, where she was an associate in its private funds group. Adeyeri is a dual-qualified US and UK corporate lawyer, having previously spent more than two years at Kirkland & Ellis in New York and London, as well as at private capital boutique Schulte Roth & Zabel. She qualified at Fasken Martineau DuMoulin eight years ago.

She advises UK and international fund managers on a range of issues, including the establishment and structuring of private investment funds, internal governance organisation and ongoing fund maintenance.  

Adeyeri was also an active member of Proskauer’s Black Lawyer Affinity Group, led by partner Sean Spence, and a key advocate for greater representation of black lawyers to improve law firm diversity generally.

She also has significant expertise advising on secondary portfolio transactions and represents a number of global investors on their investments into private investment funds. 

Funds partner Will Normand, who first worked with Adeyeri 13 years ago, said her appointment is key to the firm’s continuing development of both its primary fundraising and secondaries practice, supplementing Travers’ recent partner promotions across its well-regarded private equity and corporate teams.

The firm promoted five lawyers to partner in 2023, including two in the financial services and markets team, Sam Brewer and Henriika Hara.

Adeyeri will also add value to the firm’s retailisation and asset management M&A practices, and offer general partners advice on all key aspects of their business needs.

Aaron Stocks, head of funds, said: “Tosin’s arrival will help us to take advantage of the many opportunities we are seeing across the private funds formation and secondaries market, which are areas of strategic importance to the firm as we look to meet the needs of our clients.”

Adeyeri said she was “very excited” to be joining, saying it offered her an opportunity to advise on innovative transactions within the asset management sector alongside her new colleagues.

Rory Smith, of Brickfield Recruitment, which specialises in the funds sector, noted that Adeyeri’s hire reflected an uptick in demand for lawyers at some law firms in the UK and the US, especially firms with a strong background in NAV (net asset value) deals, following a period of caution sparked by a wave of regional bank failures in the US.

Smith said: “Good associates are in demand, with salaries still competitive and sign-on bonuses on the table. Any partner in the fund finance market that brings across portable business and a good book of relationships is of interest to most active fund finance practices.”

Travers Smith previously reported profit per equity partner (PEP) at £1.1m against a 1% increase in turnover to £197.5m, following a difficult period for the leading private equity-focused UK independent.

The firm suffered a run of partner losses in early 2023 to rival firms including Clearly Gottleib, Dechert and Linklaters, including losing two funds partners – Ed Ford and Sacha Gofton-Salmond – to Simpson Thacher.