Global law firm Hogan Lovells has announced a series of strategic hires, boosting its corporate and litigation capabilities in London.
Patrick Sarch will be joining as a partner and will co-head the London M&A practice alongside Ben Higson. He joins from White & Case where he was co-lead of the Corporate practice in London and the firm’s global financial institutions industry group.
A leading figure in the London M&A market, Sarch has worked on many high profile public and private M&A deals in recent years. He advises clients on mergers and acquisitions, corporate finance and capital restructurings, innovative structuring, disclosure issues, securities law and shareholder activism, and is recognised for bringing considerable board and C-suite level experience. Matters he has worked on include the takeover of Cadbury’s by Kraft and the acquisition of the Home Retail Group by Sainsbury’s. He also regularly advises leading corporations and funds, such as the Co-operative Bank, Avon Rubber, Softbank and GSO (an arm of Blackstone).
His appointment builds on a series of recent additions to the M&A and Private Equity groups in London [Ed Harris and Leanne Moezi], US [Adam Brown], Shanghai [Don Williams, Tony Mou and Cheng Xu], Frankfurt [Nikolai Sokolov] and more recently in Paris [Matthieu Grollemund and Hélène Parent] as well as the addition of leading New York Capital Markets partner, Richard Aftanas.
In addition, a team of leading commercial litigators will join the firm’s Band 1 Global and London disputes practice, further building on a significant strength of the firm. Kevin Lloyd, Richard Lawton, Akima Paul Lambert and Ardil Salem will join as partners from Debevoise & Plimpton.
Lloyd is one the most respected and best-known commercial litigators in London. His broad practice encompasses company, accounting, financing, banking, insolvency, contractual, tortious, shareholder, breach of contract and fiduciary disputes. He was instrumental in leading and building Debevoise & Plimpton’s commercial litigation practice. Prior to joining Debevoise, he was one of the busiest leading commercial litigation partners, head of contentious restructuring / insolvency and a board member at Herbert Smith, where he had an extensive practice and led a large team. Prior to that he spent several years in Sydney as a leading litigation partner at Mallesons Stephen Jaques where he became one of the most sought after commercial litigation partners in Australia acting on a large range of matters. Over the years, LLoyd has successfully acted for leading financial institutions and accounting firms, as well as representing clients in large corporate collapses.
Lawton, who has built a well-deserved market profile of his own, specialises in complex cross-border litigation. He has acted for leading FTSE 100 companies, market leading insurance and financial institutions, auditors, other professional advisers, company directors and shareholders. He has particular expertise dealing with claims arising in an insolvency context and has worked on some of the largest and most complex insolvencies, such as the Nortel collapse. He also has a wealth of experience dealing with shareholder and joint venture disputes. Lawton started his career at Herbert Smith before joining Debevoise. Among his notable successes were winning a two-month trial for BAT against Sequana SA, two victories for BAT in the Court of Appeal and a successful reverse summary judgment application for Litasco SA in respect of a claim seeking damages of around US$1.9 billion.
Lambert started her career at Hogan Lovells and has since developed a practice focussing on high-stakes commercial litigation. During her time at Debevoise, she has led on several multijurisdictional matters, including representing BAT on various high-profile litigation matters and more recently, PJSC Tatneft in a 12-week remote trial in the Commercial Court. She also spearheaded the development of a dedicated Caribbean practice. She has experience in commercial and investment treaty arbitration and is dual-qualified in the UK and in the U.S.
Salem’s practice focuses on high-value, complex and multi-jurisdictional commercial litigation. He started his career at Herbert Smith before joining Debevoise. He advises clients on disputes arising from joint ventures, breaches of contract, breaches of fiduciary duty, and fraud, as well as insolvency and restructuring-related work. He has successfully acted for high-profile clients such as BAT, EY and NLMK, and has recently helped lead a team representing Litasco S.A. in its defence of a US $2bn High Court claim.
The International Association of Defense Counsel (IADC) has announced that William Childs, Senior Counsel, Litigation, at 3M Company in St. Paul, Minnesota, has accepted an invitation to join the IADC, the preeminent invitation-only global legal organization for attorneys who represent corporate and insurance interests.
