White & Case has restocked its London private equity bench with a triple partner hire from US rival Dechert, just a few months after the firm lost private equity practice head Ian Bagshaw who left to pursue opportunities outside of law in June. 

The New York firm has signed on partners Ross Allardice and Mark Evans, who both previously practiced at White & Case, having left for Dechert in 2016 and 2017 respectively, according to their Linkedin profiles. Moving across with the partner duo is senior associate Tony Brown, who will join White & Case as a partner. Brown also worked at White & Case prior to joining Dechert in 2017. 

Allardice, who first arrived at White & Case after an eight-year stint as a partner at Kirkland & Ellis, focuses his practice on advising private equity firms on large and upper-mid market transactions. Evans specialises in advising private equity sponsors, alternative capital providers and hedge funds on acquisitions, take-private transactions and minority investments. Like Allardice, Evans joined White & Case from Kirkland, where he was an associate. 

Brown, meanwhile, handles M&A, complex investments, restructurings and fast growth investments as well as domestic and cross-border public and private transactions. 

Oliver Brettle, member of the firm’s global executive committee, said the triple hire sends a “clear message” regarding White & Case’s commitment to expanding its reach in the private equity industry across London and Europe, Middle East and Africa, which he said remains a “strategic priority” for the firm. 

“The addition of Ross, Mark and Tony further deepens our bench of private equity partners in London and strengthens our private equity practice in EMEA, continuing the growth and success of our standout global private equity industry group,” added global M&A practice head John Reiss. 

“The new partners will also help grow our sponsor mandates in key investor segments in the UK and EMEA more broadly, such as alternative capital providers and technology investors,” he said. 

The firm has made a number of hires to its wider London M&A team this year, including partner Ferdinand Mason from Jones Day and infrastructure M&A and finance partners Katie Hicks and Tim Sheddick, who joined from Shearman and Sterling. 

Elsewhere, White & Case has been on something of a private equity hiring spree. Earlier this week, it hired Tokyo-based private equity partner Naoya Shiota from leading local firm Mori Hamada & Matsumoto, and added debt finance expert Lindani Mthembu from Allen & Overy as a partner in Johannesburg. 

Private equity-backed M&A and cross-border deals had a huge hand in propelling global M&A activity to new highs in the first nine months of the year, according to Refinitiv’s latest Global M&A Review. White & Case was surpassed only by Latham & Watkins and Sullivan & Cromwell in terms of deal value, working on 385 deals worth $433.3bn. It ranked sixth in terms of deal volume, after placing tenth in 2020.