Travers Smith has promoted 11 lawyers to its partnership, with effect from 1 July 2022. This is the largest promotion round to date. The new partners whose practices focus on private equity. Victoria Bramall specialises in international private equity and M&A transactions. Her clients include alternative asset managers, senior management teams, and founders. She advises on a range of liquidity solutions for financial sponsors and their investors including, minority and majority GP-stake M&A, GP-led and LP-led secondary transactions, transfers of assets into continuation vehicles and fund-to-fund transfers.  Alex Dixon is a corporate lawyer specialising in pan-European and international private equity

Palatine has grown both its Buyout and Impact teams following an active first quarter of the year. Rupert Brown has been promoted to senior investment director and moves across to the Impact team, whilst the Buyout team has welcomed new recruit Carly Sinicrope as investment manager. Both will be based in the London office.  Brown has been a part of the Palatine team since 2016, working on new deals and with portfolio companies where he has been an advocate of promoting sustainability.  Sinicrope joins the firm from corporate finance advisor Clearwater International, where she was embedded within the M&A team

Monroe Capital has appointed Gila Cohen as Managing Director, Head of Global Institutional Partnerships based in the firm’s New York office. She will be responsible for new initiatives to expand Monroe’s global footprint, among institutional investors, focusing on the high growth Opportunistic and Real Estate private credit areas of the firm. Prior to Monroe, Cohen was Chief Investment Strategy Officer of MUFG (USA), and was responsible for advising, directing, and governing the strategic alternatives investment portfolio, as well as playing a strategic role in the firmwide missions for ESG and DEI. 

BGF has added Daria Polunina to its team in London as a portfolio manager. Polunina joins BGF from Saphir Capital Partners, where she spent almost ten years as Director of the firm’s London office. Polunina also brings experience of managing and sitting on boards of UK-based portfolio companies as well as providing M&A advisory on buy-side mandates for external clients.   In her role at BGF, Polunina will be working closely with CEOs and business owners in the company’s portfolio and liaising with the portfolio’s management teams. She will also sit on the boards of portfolio companies including Apex Housing

Kirkland & Ellis has appointed Nicole Runyan, William Tuttle, Brad Green, Erin Lett, David Marcinkus and Lisa Goldstein as partners in the firm’s Investment Funds Group. The team focuses on advising registered funds and business development companies (BDCs) — as well as their investment advisers and independent board members — and investment banks, with a particular emphasis on products designed for high net worth and retail investors. Runyan advises on the creation, registration and operation of registered products designed for retail as well as institutional investors. In addition to advising on more traditional open-end and closed-end fund matters, she regularly

Following the closing of BEX Fund IV in March 2022 at $765 million, BEX Capital, an investment firm focused exclusively on secondaries in private equity fund-of-funds (FoF), secondaries funds and co-investment funds, has appointed Bernard Charpentier as general counsel.

Allspring Global Investments (Allspring), an independent asset manager with more than $541 billion in assets under management, has added two senior hires to its legal team. Chris Rohrbacher joins Allspring as Deputy General Counsel, reporting to Kate McKinley, Chief Legal Officer. Rohrbacher leads the teams that provide legal support to Allspring’s US-registered and private funds, registered investment advisers and broker-dealer, institutional distribution channels, and fund boards.  Heather White joins Allspring as Global Human Resources and Employment Senior Counsel, reporting to Kate McKinley. White is responsible for advising on Allspring’s legal HR matters, with respect to employment, compensation, and benefits.

Apollo and Sofinnova Partners (Sofinnova), a European life sciences venture capital firm based in Paris, London, and Milan, have formed a long-term strategic and financial partnership. Under the agreement, Apollo will take a minority equity interest in Sofinnova and commit up to €1 billion of managed capital to its investment funds.  This strategic partnership is poised to significantly accelerate Sofinnova’s growth. For Apollo, the investment will meaningfully increase its presence in life sciences and contribute to its growth ecosystem of partners that bring specialised knowledge and networks to its integrated platform.

SK Capital Partners (SK Capital), a private investment firm focused on the specialty materials, specialty chemicals and pharmaceuticals sectors, has appointed Richard Jackson as Managing Director, Head of Capital Markets. Jackson will be based in New York and brings three decades of investment banking and deal making experience across Europe and the US to SK Capital. In this newly established role, he  will lead the firm’s efforts in obtaining committed financing for new platform investments and be responsible for managing the capital structures of the existing portfolio companies as well as the refinancing of existing debt, IPO related activities and

Jason Griffith, an accomplished deal lawyer who advises private equity firms, companies and family offices in corporate transactions of all sizes, has joined McGuireWoods’ global private equity team as a partner in Chicago. Griffith counsels clients in mergers, acquisitions, dispositions, minority investments and restructurings, as well as general corporate matters. His experience includes middle-market transactions and deals exceeding $1 billion in value. He has represented buyers, sellers and lenders in deals across industries, including a transaction recognized as the Turnaround Deal of the Year by M&A Advisor. Griffith comes to McGuireWoods from Benesch Friedlander Coplan & Aronoff in Chicago.