Dechert lawyer joins Fidelity’s family office

• Arthur Solmssen is leaving Dechert to become head of the Crosby Family Office and the Crosby Company of New Hampshire. The family office is based in Salem, New Hampshire and manages the wealth of the Johnson family, which owns third-generation family business Fidelity Investments. Solmssen has worked as a partner at Dechert for 16 years and currently leads the firm’s private client group. In his new position, he will coordinate the interests of the Johnson family, which include investments in a global financial services business, a trust company, venture capital, private equity, real estate, public securities, significant charitable organizations, and art and antiquities.

• Ben Davis joined Proskauer as a partner in the firm’s finance practice. He joins the firm’s London office from Reed Smith, where he worked for two and a half years in the leveraged finance team. Davis advises alternative lenders, private equity firms, and other financial entities on acquisition and leveraged finance facilities, corporate facilities and debt restructurings. He has experience advising on unitranche loans, second lien facilities, mezzanine and high-yield bonds, as well as real estate finance and litigation funding.

• Holman Fenwick Willan appointed Georges Racine as a partner in the firm’s Geneva office. He joins the firm from Lalive where he was a corporate partner. Racine has experience in corporate, commercial and international business law, with a particular focus on joint ventures, M&A, venture capital and private equity, public and private partnerships and international trade regulation. He advises clients across a broad range of sectors, including energy, commodities and infrastructure, and has been lead counsel on international transactions and projects in more than 25 countries worldwide, including Europe, Africa, the Middle East and the Americas.

• Chicago-based law firm Neal, Gerber & Eisenberg hired David Milligan as corporate partner. Milligan joins the firm from Kirkland & Ellis, where he worked with private equity groups and their portfolio companies for 11 years. Milligan specializes in mergers & acquisitions, leveraged buyouts, recapitalizations, divestitures, debt financings and equity financings for private equity groups, commercial lending institutions, hedge funds, and a variety of public and privately held companies. 

• Bird & Bird appointed corporate lawyer Maria Carlsson to the firm’s corporate practice in Helsinki, Finland. Carlsson joins the firm from Borenius Attorneys, where she worked as a partner in the firm’s M&A and private equity practice as well as leading the commercial contracts team for more than four years. Carlsson specializes in private M&A and strategic contracting and has more than 15 years of experience advising Finnish and international clients on structuring and negotiating M&A and commercial deals, including cross-border and private equity transactions.

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