Fried Frank have recruited two leading lawyers who will work on boosting the firm’s work in M&A and private equity. Rhett McPhie is from Kirkland & Ellis and one, Morgan Pusey, (pictured) is from Morgan Lewis.
The firm’s media announcement is below –
Fried Frank announced today that Rhett McPhie and Nathan R. Pusey have joined the firm’s M&A and Private Equity Practice in London and New York, respectively, further strengthening the firm’s transatlantic capabilities across private capital, secondaries and asset management M&A.
“We are thrilled to welcome Rhett and Nathan as the latest additions to the firm – they are outstanding practitioners,” said Steven Epstein, Fried Frank’s managing partner and co-head of its M&A and Private Equity Practice. “Their arrival advances a strategic growth priority by continuing to deepen our asset management M&A capabilities to support the expanding needs of our client base.”
Rhett brings substantial experience advising on secondaries, strategic and other complex transactions across both North America and Europe. He counsels private capital sponsors, funds and their portfolio companies on a broad spectrum of large and sophisticated transactions across asset classes, in particular GP-led secondary transactions, continuation fund transactions, preferred financing and complex fund and corporate recapitalizations and restructurings.
Nathan brings extensive experience in asset management M&A transactions. He advises financial services clients on mergers and acquisitions and other strategic transactions involving traditional and alternative asset managers and wealth management firms, including acquisitions and sales of majority and minority investments, spinouts, liftouts, joint ventures, seed investments, fund adoptions and partnerships.
“Rhett and Nathan are fantastic additions,” said Randi Lally, partner and co-head of the firm’s M&A and Private Equity Practice. “Our clients will immediately benefit from their ability to effectively resolve critical issues and seamlessly execute industry-shaping deals. We’re excited to add them to our team.”
Rhett and Nathan are the latest in a string of recent lateral partners to join Fried Frank’s M&A and Private Equity Practice. Their arrival follows that of partners Stephen B. Amdur and Saif I. Shah Mohammed. Additionally, the firm recently welcomed antitrust partner Shawn R. Johnson as it continues to strengthen its regulatory capabilities.
Fried Frank’s M&A and Private Equity Practice advises public and private corporations, private equity firms, investment banks and alternative asset managers. As part of the firm’s M&A and Private Equity Practice, Fried Frank’s market-leading Asset Management M&A team structures acquisitions and sales for private funds and works on transformative asset manager transactions that unlock value for clients.
Since the start of 2026, Fried Frank’s M&A and Private Equity Practice has advised on more than $90 billion in deals. The firm’s most recent work includes advising the special committee of the board of directors of Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance, Inc. (ARI), a publicly traded REIT, in connection with ARI’s definitive agreement to sell its entire approximately $9 billion commercial real estate loan portfolio to Athene Holding; Evercore as financial advisor to Devon Energy on its agreement to merge with Coterra Energy, creating a combined enterprise value of approximately $58 billion and the second-largest energy deal in the past five years; Terex Corporation on its merger with REV Group, creating an implied total enterprise value of approximately $9 billion; and CVC Secondary Partners on a $1.1 billion managed fund secondary transaction, as part of a new strategic partnership with M&G Investments.
