Morgan, Lewis & Bockius poaches team of secondaries lawyers

Morgan, Lewis & Bockius has added four private equity- and secondaries-focused lawyers.

Partners Oliver Rochman and Rob Mailer, and associates Eliska Macnerova and Xun Choong, have joined the firm’s London-based investment management practice from Morrison & Foerster, according to a statement.

“Their diverse experience and market perspective presents increased opportunities for our sponsor-side and investor clients, where we continue to see an appetite for US-based clients to make inroads into other markets and London-based clients competing in the global funds markets,” said Timothy Levin, global head of the investment management practice.

Rochman has experience in fund restructurings and secondaries transactions, the statement noted. Prior to joining Morrison & Foerster in 2016, he spent five years as a partner at Proskauer, according to his LinkedIn profile.

Mailer has experience advising teams on spin-outs, the establishment of fund management companies, defaulting investors and other end-of-life fund issues, according to the statement. He spent 11 years with King & Wood Mallesons before leaving for Morrison & Foerster in 2017.

This brings the number of London-based partners focused on secondaries to eight, across investment management, corporate and tax practices.

In the past year, a number of secondaries teams have changed firms. In July, three lawyers from Hogan Lovells left to join Paul Hastings, Secondaries Investor reported. Over the course of the first half of 2019, four members of O’Melveny & Myers‘ private equity funds group left to join Akin Gump.

Morgan Lewis advised on $14.5 billion of secondaries deals last year, around 90 percent of which were LP stake transfers, according to the Secondaries Investor Law Firm Survey 2020, placing it fifth overall by deal volume.