Shearman snags trio of Weil PE lawyers

· Shearman & Sterling has poached private equity lawyers Mark Soundy and Simon Burrows, as well as tax specialist Sarah Priestley, from rival law firm Weil, Gotshal & Manges. The trio follow in the footsteps of their former Weil colleague Jeremy Dickens, who joined Shearman’s New York office in April as a private equity partner.  

· McCarter & English added private equity and venture capital funds lawyer Joseph Bartlett to its New York office. Bartlett joins from Sullivan & Worcester, and was previously general counsel and undersecretary of the US Department of Commerce.

· A pair of tech-focused M&A lawyers, David Gammell and Edwin Pease, have join WilmerHale as Boston-based partners. The two were previously co-chairs of Brown Rudnick’s emerging technologies and venture capital practices. 

· White & Case has bolstered its M&A practice in Frankfurt with the addition of Roger Kiem. He was previously with Shearman & Sterling.

· Addleshaw Goddard has promoted Yunus Seedat to national head of private equity in the UK. He succeeds Andrew Carpenter, who was tapped to run the firm’s new Hong Kong office.

· Sidley Austin recruited M&A lawyer Gregory Salathe, who was previously co-managing partner of Morgan, Lewis & Bockius‘ Tokyo office. Salathe will be based in Singapore following a transition period in Tokyo. 

· O’Melveny & Myers has snagged four bankruptcy lawyers from Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft. Based in New York, John Rapisardi and George Davis, previously co-chairs of Cadwalader’s restructuring practice, will now co-chair O’Melveny’s bankruptcy practice. They will be joined by their former colleagues Zachary Smith and Peter Friedman who will reside in New York and Washington DC respectively. 

· In light of the exodus Cadwalader promoted Gregory Petrick and Mark Ellenberg, as co-chairs of the firm’s financial restructuring department. The firm also recruited bankruptcy lawyers Holly Neavill (formerly of Latham & Watkins) and Louisa Watt, (formerly of Richards Kibbe & Orbe) as partners in its London office.  

· Boston-based law firm Edwards Wildman is opening an office in Turkey, a move that “is very much private equity-led”, according to a spokesperson for the firm. Spearheading the initiative is Ted Cominos, who is chair of the firm’s private equity practice. Through an association with Istanbul-based law firm Ismen, the firm hopes to use Turkey as a base for cross-border private equity and M&A transactions throughout the EMEA region.

Know of any private equity lawyer career moves we might have missed? If so, email PEM editor Nicholas Donato at nicholas.d@peimedia.com.