Weil, Gotshal & Manges has hired Freshfields private equity partner Rebecca Ward in London, a welcome arrival at a firm that has lately been better known for partners leaving than joining.
Ward joined Freshfields in 2022 after 17 years at sponsor specialist Dickson Minto, nine of them as partner.
Her client list includes CVC, TPG and BC Partners. Most recently she advised BP on the sale of a 65% stake in Castrol to Stonepeak, at an enterprise value of US$10 billion.
“Rebecca brings longstanding relationships with leading sponsors and clients across Europe,” executive partner Barry Wolf told Bloomberg Law. Wolf hands the reins to Ramona Nee in January.
The context is hard to ignore. London co-managing partner David Avery-Gee and Sarah Flaherty are off to Sullivan & Cromwell. Simpson Thacher has taken six Weil partners, and London finance head Tom Richards is also leaving. Weil says Ward is part of a wider European PE build, including 11 partner hires in Germany. Freshfields, meanwhile, has lost its global private capital co-head and its secondaries co-head to Debevoise.
One good hire does not make a recovery, but it’s a start.
