Travers Smith Corporate Co-head hired by Latham in latest top-level London hire

Travers Smith Corporate Co-head hired by Latham in latest top-level London hire

Paul Dolman's "highly complementary connections and deal experience" called by US giant

The London private equity practice of Latham & Watkins has been bolstered with the hire of Travers Smith's Corporate Co-head, Paul Dolman.

With Latham having already hired Sam Newhouse, up-and-coming M&A partner from Fresh fields Bruckhaus Deringer this year and Simpson Thacher & Bartlett last week, thus completing four lateral partner hires in 2020, 3 out of which are from Magic Circle firms, the move once again underscores the buying power of top US firms targeting talent in the City of London.

Described by the firm on its website as the "go to" lawyer for some of its key clients including Graphite Capital, Hellman & Friedman, TA Associates and Bridge point Capital, Paul Dolman, is also head of the private equity and private sponsors group. Trained at Travers Smith, he was made partner in 2006.

He has advised on significant deals such as advising TA Associates on its acquisition of Old Mutual Global Investors from Quilter for $770m in 2018 and acting for Bridge point on the $2bn sale of Pret A Manger to JAB Holdings also in 2018.

"A prolific dealmaker and one of the market's leading private equity lawyers" is what managing partner of the London office of Latham, Stephen Kensell, described him as. David Walker, global corporate vice chair based out of London, who was earlier private equity co-head at Clifford Chance, said, "Dolman's connections and deal experience were highly complementary to the firm's and that he would play a major role in the continued expansion of their practice in the UK and globally."

TA Associates, Bridge point and Hellman & Friedman are notable shared clients with the Milan and Paris offices of Latham both having advised TA Associates on recent deals. Bridge point is a client of the Paris arm while Hellman & Friedman are on the Milan team's roster.

Having advised on 50 deals valued at $40.2bn, Latham was placed fourth by value in Q1-Q3 2020 in Merger market's global private equity league table and in second place by volume after US rival Kirkland & Ellis. The Europe M&A table by value for the same period too was topped by the Los Angeles giant which advised on 131 deals worth $157.9bn. While Travers Smith attributes its relatively rare senior departures to its unified culture, in July it blamed the 20 per cent provisional fall in profit-per-partner for the financial year ended 30 June on COVID-19 and the uncertainty around BREXIT.

Top private equity lawyer Edmund Reed in November was elected as managing partner unopposed to predecessor David Patient. In July 2021, Reed will take up the post. A statement from the firm read: "Paul has made an important contribution to Travers Smith's private equity and financial sponsors practice. We will be very sorry to see him go – but wish him all the best for the future."