DLA Piper makes GP-led play with Hogan Lovells hire – exclusive

Adam Tope will focus on infrastructure, energy and real estate GP-led restructurings.

The co-head of Hogan Lovells‘ US secondaries business has become the fourth senior figure to leave the team in the past month.

Adam Tope, who was also head of the law firm’s New York fund formation and funds regulatory practices, has joined DLA Piper as a partner, according to a statement obtained by Secondaries Investor.

His main focus will be GP-led deals in the energy, infrastructure and real estate sectors, as well as portfolio sales and fund formation work. Tope also represents investors in secondaries, private equity transactions and co-investments.

His experience with energy and infrastructure funds “complements our investments in project finance, and his venture experience will be highly valuable to a number of practices across the firm,” said John Cusack, global co-chairman and US chairman of DLA Piper’s Finance practice.

Tope represented secondaries funds in connection with more $2 billion of tender offers, GP restructurings, and stapled secondaries in 2017 and 2018, according to his Hogan Lovells biography.

DLA Piper has secondaries professionals in its offices in Toronto, London and Texas, Secondaries Investor understands. Its primary focus is on portfolio sales. The firm wants to increase its volume of GP-led work on the back of a large private equity deal business.

In July, three lawyers from Hogan Lovells who focus on secondaries and private equity left the law firm to join rival Paul HastingsSecondaries Investor reported. London-based partner Ed Harris and counsel Leanne Moezi and Washington DC-based partner Adam Brown all joined as partners.