Paul, Weiss continues its London talent-grab, this time hiring Francesca Storey-Harris as a partner in its M&A and Private Equity groups and once again targeting Kirkland & Ellis for the talent.
The firm, which has been assembling a transatlantic Avengers squad for months, will slot Storey-Harris into its Corporate Department in London, where demand for heavyweight private equity counsel hasn’t exactly slowed.
The firm recently recruited Revathi Raghavan from Kirklands too.
Chairman Brad Karp said the firm is “thrilled” to have her aboard, which is chairman-speak for we really wanted her and we actually got her. Her practice spans private and public company M&A, cross-border brawls, and the sort of high-stakes deals that keep private equity titans awake at night.
In London, Roger Johnson, global co-chair of M&A and co-head of the growing outpost, praised Storey-Harris for her work on “some of the most critical European deals of recent years.”
Dan Schuster-Woldan, the firm’s European public M&A lead, added that she arrives with a “superb reputation,” which in this market is basically gold bullion.
Storey-Harris has acted for Thoma Bravo on everything from the Darktrace acquisition to LOGEX and J.D. Power’s buy of AutoVista; for Blackstone on its Hipgnosis takeover, music catalogue ventures and stake in VFS Global; for EQT on the Dechra Pharmaceuticals buyout; for Brookfield on the Hibernia REIT acquisition; and for Energy Capital Partners on its hook-up with Bridgepoint. She also ran the J.M. Huber sale of CP Kelco to Tate & Lyle.
Her rise has been recognised with “Rising Star” and “Next Generation Partner” nods from Legal 500. Cambridge degrees with enough Firsts to make normal lawyers ill, an M.Phil, and England-and-Wales admission round things out.
Paul, Weiss’s M&A and PE groups have been in full expansionist mode, advising private equity funds and mega-corps on transactions that matter, including those we’ve recently covered on LawFuel such as the surge in high-value UK M&A activity and the debate over private equity’s growing influence in BigLaw.
