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Global law firm Ropes & Gray has named 24 attorneys as partners of the firm, while six attorneys have been named counsel, effective 1 November, in the largest round of partner and counsel promotions in the firm’s 153-year history.
The roster of new partners includes hedge fund, private equity and investment management specialists.
The new partners and counsel of the firm reflect Ropes & Gray’s diversity, global footprint, and dedication to developing and advancing its talent. They are based in nine offices on three continents, including Asia, Europe and North America, and nearly half of the new partners are women,
Connection Capital, a specialist private client investment business, has appointed a new Portfolio Manager, Michael Coupland, to its private equity team.
Coupland will play a key role in monitoring Connection Capital’s private equity portfolio and will partner with portfolio companies throughout the lifetime of the investment, to strengthen the investor/investee relationship and provide support to enable business development and growth.
Coupland joins from private equity firm Caird Capital where he was an Associate Director specialising in portfolio management, working with investee companies across a range of sectors including Industrials, Healthcare, Business Services, Housebuilding and Construction.
Coupland started his career at
Fund administrator Apex Group (Apex) has appointed Robert Aaron as the first member of the firm’s new Advisory Council.
The purpose of the Council is to form a select group of industry leaders, with significant track records in guiding market developments, to help drive Apex forward as a leading innovator in the fund services space. The first appointed member of the council has been announced today as industry veteran, Robert Aaron.
Aaron has over thirty five years of experience in the Alternatives Industry. His impressive resume includes both buy-side experience and the leadership of several large service providers in
Dutch investor Nimbus is to open offices in the United Kingdom as the company launches its fourth fund. Nimbus has appointed veteran investor Chris Clegg, a former Partner at Endless, to Chair their UK operations.
Nimbus is a hands on investor focusing on non-core carve outs and companies requiring operational and strategic enhancement.
Clegg says: “I’m delighted to work with Nimbus to develop their UK ambitions. They are a unique investor with a very different approach to value creation preferring longer term partnerships with investee companies. Our initial focus will be the Northern Powerhouse and we hope to announce office
Akin Gump has added a four-partner financial restructuring and global debt finance team, with Thomas F O’Connor, Renée M.Dailey, Christopher E Lawrence and Chester L “Chip” Fisher all joining from Morgan Lewis.
O’Connor will be based in Akin Gump’s London office, while Dailey, Fisher and Lawrence will launch the firm’s new Hartford, Connecticut office.
The team focuses on the institutional debt private placement market across the globe, with a practice encompassing a wide range of private placement financing transactions and financial restructuring matters. Their arrival significantly enhances the firm’s capabilities and strengths advising institutional private placement investors on financings and
Global technology investor Amadeus Capital Partners has added two UK-based partners, Nick Kingsbury and Volker Hirsch, to its team of early stage venture capital investors.
Kingsbury’s investment focus will be on cyber security, AI and B2B software businesses while Volker’s expertise is in artificial intelligence & machine learning, human-machine interfaces, enterprise SaaS, autonomous systems, digital health and medical technologies.
Kingsbury is an international software entrepreneur and venture capitalist. He started out founding software and consultancy companies and, after selling to Staffware in 1996, moved to private equity investor 3i as software and internet sector head, advising on more than 80 investments in eight years. Since 2007,
Top 20 accountancy firm Saffery Champness has appointed Ian Johnson as Director. He is based in the London office with a national role.
Johnson specialises in advising law firms on areas including financial reporting, statutory accounts and audit issues. He regularly advises law firms on SRA Accounting Rules, financial and regulatory compliance, restructuring, internal management reporting, financial forecasting and tax compliance.
Johnson joins Saffery Champness’ Professional Practices Group from Crowe UK where he was a Director. He has previously worked for Hazlewoods and KPMG.
He is also a member of the Executive Council with the Institute of Legal
Artivest, a provider of alternative funds and technology solutions, has appointed Kamal Jafarnia as General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer.
Jafarnia (pictured), brings more than 25 years of experience as an attorney and compliance professional to this role, having advised public and private companies – including alternative investment program sponsors – on complex securities offerings, regulatory and compliance issues, mergers and acquisitions, and corporate governance.
Jafarnia plans to allocate his time between Artivest’s New York and San Diego headquarters, and reports directly to James Waldinger, Artivest’s Founder and Chief Executive Officer.
“As regulations governing wealth and investment management
NorthEdge Capital has appointed experienced dealmaker Kevin O’Loughlin as an Investment Manager, based in Birmingham.
O’Loughlin joins NorthEdge from Deloitte, where he was Assistant Director for three years working on a range of transactions involving privately-owned and publicly-listed companies in the Midlands. These include the sale of Atcore to Inflexion Private Equity, the sale of Aegis Engineering to US buyer Safariland Group and Eddie Stobart’s acquisition of The Pallet Network.
Prior to Deloitte, O’Loughlin worked as part of EY’s Corporate Finance team, where he advised NorthEdge on investments including Ramsdens, the UK’s largest independent pawnbroker, which successfully floated on
Private investment firm Littlejohn & Co has added to its special situations and private equity investment teams with the appointments of Beth Pollack and Thomas Bennet, who have joined the firm as Vice Presidents, and Bart Stout, who has been promoted to Vice President.
Pollack and Stout are part of Littlejohn’s special situations team and Bennet is a member of the private equity team.
“We are excited to welcome Beth to Littlejohn and are pleased to recognise Bart’s contributions to the firm through this promotion,” says Michael Klein, Chief Executive Officer of Littlejohn. “Tom’s decision to rejoin our firm
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12 November, 2026 – 8:00 am
12 November, 2026 – 5:00 pm
