Pillsbury picks up Nixon Peabody’s PE team

A group of 14 finance and private equity attorneys have departed Nixon Peabody to join Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman’s leveraged finance team.

Led by Mats Carlston, the former head of global finance at Nixon Peabody, the team will be based in New York. The group was brought on to strengthen Pillsbury’s activities in private equity, distressed debt, leveraged finance and corporate trust legal services and include five partners, two members of counsel and seven associates, a Pillsbury spokeswoman said.

Carlston is joining the team with more than 20 years of experience with a principal focus in the private equity-sponsored buyout space. While at Nixon Peabody, he oversaw the growth of its global finance practice group to more than 50 attorneys.

Other key hires include James Kelly, Peter Alfano and Doug Schneller, who will focus on M&A and private equity, corporate finance and distressed investing, respectively.

Pillsbury’s leveraged finance team represents arrangers, agents, lenders, investors, collateral agents and borrowers in a wide range of debt financing transactions. Pillsbury works in the financial services, real estate, technology, energy, health care and education sectors.

This is the second large group of departures for Nixon Peabody. Last November, Chicago-based law firm Winston & Strawn hired eight private equity lawyers from Nixon Peabody, significantly expanding its private equity practice. The new Winston partners were Dominick DeChiara, Bradley Vaiana, Bryan Goldstein and Jennifer Kurtis, who will work out of New York.

At Nixon Peabody, DeChiara chaired the private equity practice.