TPG general counsel to leave firm

Ronald Cami will stay on until the private equity giant finds his replacement.

TPG partner and general counsel Ronald Cami will depart the buyout firm after five years to pursue new opportunities. Cami, who is based in TPG’s San Francisco office, will stay on at the firm while it searches for a replacement, a source familiar with the situation told pfm.

Cami has not yet disclosed where he is headed. TPG declined to respond to a request for comment.

“It’s been an incredible opportunity to serve as the general counsel for TPG for last five years, and I am proud to have been part of such a great organization during this time when much has been accomplished,” Cami said in a statement to the Wall Street Journal. “I made the decision that I wanted to pursue new opportunities that I’ve been approached about and I am looking forward to new challenges.”

Prior to joining TPG in 2010, Cami worked for 10 years as a corporate partner at Cravath, Swaine & Moore in New York, where his practice was focused on mergers & acquisitions, leveraged transactions and general corporate and board advice. From 1994 through 2000, Cami was an associate in the New York and London offices of Cravath. Earlier in his career, Cami served as law clerk to the Honorable Kevin Thomas Duffy of the Southern District of New York.

Cami’s departure comes as TPG faces a highly public legal battle in its lawsuit against former global head of public affairs Adam Levine. TPG sued Levine in January for purportedly stealing confidential documents and hardware, and sharing altered confidential information with the media.

Levine subsequently countersued TPG for whistleblower retaliation and accused the firm of defrauding investors of millions of dollars through its fee policies. In his suit, Levine claims he told Cami he would be reporting TPG’s fee abuses to the US Securities and Exchange Commission and that Cami responded by calling Levine a “man of honor.”