Debevoise taps Proskauer for secondaries counsel

Debevoise advised on roughly $18bn of secondaries transactions during 2020, a vast majority of which were GP-led processes.

Debevoise & Plimpton has bulked out its secondaries capabilities with a senior London-based hire.

The law firm has appointed Matthew Pincus as an international counsel in its tax group, according to a statement. He focuses on tax aspects of private investment funds and secondaries transactions, including advising on portfolio sales, GP-led transactions and preferred equity financings.

Debevoise has at least 40 lawyers in its tax group, the statement said.

Pincus joins from Proskauer, where he spent three and a half years, according to his LinkedIn profile. He was an associate at Debevoise between 2011 and 2018.

The title of counsel applies to US-based lawyers, and international counsel for those outside the US, Secondaries Investor understands. The position is roughly equivalent to non-equity partner at other firms.

In July, Debevoise elevated two New York-based secondaries lawyers, Andrew Gershon and Zhiyan Cao, to counsel, Secondaries Investor reported.

The month before it promoted Matthew Dickman to the role of partner, one of nine top-level promotions firm-wide. Dickman’s areas of focus include general partner stake transactions, seed investments and secondaries transactions.

In 2020, Debevoise & Plimpton worked on roughly $18 billion of secondaries deals, double its reported volume from 2019, according to Secondaries Investor‘s annual legal survey. Ninety-six percent of these deals by volume were GP-led, including nine single-asset deals.