Leading global law firm Baker McKenzie has hired private equity partner Justin Hutchinson from Kirkland & Ellis, as part of the Firm’s continued efforts to drive growth across its transactional practices and increase the Firm’s bench-strength in London – one of the key centres for further investment alongside New York and China.
Hutchinson is an experienced cross-border transactional lawyer, having acted throughout his career on a broad range of control and minority investments, leveraged buyouts, management equity arrangements and disposals. His client base includes growth equity, large cap private equity and other financial sponsors, such as Bain Capital and Summit Partners.
David Allen, Chair of Baker McKenzie’s Global Private Equity practice, says: “Justin is a key name in the Private Equity community in London and widely respected. Our financial sponsor practice is going from strength to strength as sponsors continue to be attracted by the breadth of our geographical, industry and practice offerings. Justin will complement and strongly support the continued growth of our team. We are thrilled that he is joining us.”
London Managing Partner Alex Chadwick adds: “Private equity is one of the big growth areas for the Firm and adding a high calibre partner such as Justin will make a real difference in client penetration and deal-flow. As the latest in a series of hires, Justin’s addition is a reflection of our ambition to grow our transactional teams and testament to the progress we are making to increase our market share in London. I look forward to welcoming him to the Firm.”
Hutchinson says: “The recent growth and trajectory of the transactional practice at Baker McKenzie is notable and I am delighted to be joining the team. Baker McKenzie’s excellence across a wide range of practice areas and industries gives it a unique product to offer to the private equity community and I am looking forward to working with my new colleagues across the network to continue to deliver top tier legal advice to our clients.”
Hutchinson earned his BA from George Washington University, an MA from Oxford University and his JD from Harvard Law School. He began his legal career as an associate with Kirkland & Ellis (London) in 2006 and was made partner in 2012.
Hutchinson’s appointment follows a series of strategic hires in Baker McKenzie’s London transactional practices. Over the past three years Baker McKenzie has made 26 Partner-level hires across its transactional groups in London to increase materially its bench-strength on the transactional side. Multiple hires have been made from Allen & Overy, Ashurst, Clifford Chance, Kirkland, Ropes & Gray, Travers, and White & Case.
Additional key hires were made across Baker McKenzie’s other key money centres, including most recently Andy Sagor, a leveraged finance Partner from Kirkland in New York and Leif King, Skadden’s former head of Corporate /M&A practice in Silicon Valley.
