London’s Clifford Chance Hunts for New York Investment Lawyers

UK-founded law firm Clifford Chance is looking to add US attorneys with investment fund experience.

“We are definitely very focused on growth and we are planning on more, which allows us to take on bigger mandates while taking care of what we have,” Michael Sabin, US co-head of the Magic Circle firm’s funds and & investment management team, told Bloomberg Law. “We are constantly on the lookout for investment management lawyers.”

The firm has added a trio of lawyers from Covington & Burling to Sabin’s team in the last six weeks. It plans to continue to focus on individual hires from competitors, rather than looking to merge with or acquire another firm, according to Sabin.

Clifford Chance announced Monday that it hired Richard Kruger, who has a decade of advising private investment funds sponsors, in a counsel role in the firm’s New York office. He reunites with William Sturman—Covington’s former private funds and investments group—and Kelly Labritz, who jumped to Clifford Chance from Covington in May.

Clifford Chance has more than 300 lawyers in New York and Washington, according to a spokesperson. It has added five partners and three counsel in the US this year.

Sabin sees Clifford Chance’s competitors as such firms as Simpson Thacher, Kirkland & Ellis and Debevoise & Plimpton on the global front, and, in the expansive U.S. market, Gibson Dunn & Crutcher, Davis Polk and Goodwin Procter, among others.

The firm’s clients include Credit Suisse, TCW Asset Management, Blackstone, BlackRock, Goldman Sachs and Zurich Alternative Asset Management.

The firm has been involved in private and public investment funds for decades, said Sabin, who joined Clifford Chance in 2017 from Debevoise.

“We have reinvigorated our practice over the past one-and-a-half to two years, focusing on the US,” he said.

Sabin’s team has been advising on private equity fundraising, and working with clients who are raising capital for other assets, investment or infrastructure or public equities, he said.

Sabin conceded that shifting economic winds could impact the investment management sector.

“It is possible there are possible certain negative effects on the level of activity of the funds formation management,” Sabin said, referring to recession concerns. “But compared to other practices, it’s much less in ours.”