King & Spalding Adds Cadwalader Finance Team in London (1)

King & Spalding has poached a group of five London-based finance lawyers from Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft after weathering a series of departures in its corporate department.

The group joining King & Spalding include Cadwalader partners Samantha Hutchinson, Nathan Parker, Mathan Navaratnam and Sukhvir Basran, according to a person familiar with the matter. Cadwalader special counsel James Hoggett is also joining King & Spalding as a partner, the person said.

The group’s focuses include advising financial institutions and private market funds specializing in areas such private equity and real estate.

Cadwalader is “grateful for our former colleagues’ contributions and wish them success in all their future endeavors,” a firm spokesperson said.

The move follows a series of defections in King & Spalding’s corporate group, the most recent of which came last week when a 11-partner finance and restructuring team left for Paul Hastings. The group was led by Jennifer Daly, the former leader of King & Spalding’s private credit and special situations practice whose clients have included KKR and Blackstone.

In April 2023, King & Spalding structured finance leader Michael Urschel joined Milbank with two other partners. Cadwalader also that year poached a group of US-based leveraged finance and private credit partners from King & Spalding.

The movement comes as many Big Law firms seek to augment their finance practices as private credit, an alternative to bank financing, blossoms into a $1.7 trillion industry. Kirkland & Ellis, the largest firm by revenue in the US, last month said it hired Urschel to lead its structured finance and structured private credit practice.

King & Spalding reported $2.1 billion in gross revenue and $5.3 million in profits per equity partner in 2023, according to American Lawyer data.