Sidley Austin Hires Ex-Kirkland Funds Partner in London

Sidley Austin has hired former Kirkland & Ellis partner turned private capital adviser general counsel Mateja Maher, as a London-based partner in Sidley’s investment funds practice.

Maher had spent the last four years in-house at global private equity advisory firm Campbell Lutyens, which he joined from his position as partner in Kirkland’s private funds group.

Sidley Austin has been busy building out its private equity practice in recent months, and has added around 20 private equity lawyers in the 12 months through late June. Hires have come from prestigious competitors including Kirkland, Cooley, Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, Davis Polk & Wardwell and Milbank.

Earlier this year, Sidley added another London-based former general counsel and Kirkland partner in Mark Knight, who is now a partner in the firm’s restructuring practice with a private equity background. In March, the firm’s investment funds practice brought on ex-Kirkland partner Joshua Cohen in Chicago.

Maher’s practice has included work with fund formation and secondary transactions across a number of asset classes, including buyout, venture capital, infrastructure, debt and real estate.

In a statement, Sidley said Maher was “at the very top of his practice,” which focuses on fund formation and secondary transactions across a range of asset classes.

“Our continued investment and growth in private funds provides a wealth of opportunity for talented lawyers such as Mateja to add value,” William Kerr, global leader of Sidley’s investment funds practice and member of the firm’s executive committee, said in a statement.

Sidley, a 2,000-lawyer firm, last year brought in $2.2 billion in revenue and had profits per equity partner of $2.55 million, according to the AmLaw rankings. Two years ago, the firm hired a seven-partner group of private equity partners in Munich from Kirkland, the world’s largest firm by revenue last year.