Jamie Grant has joined Shepherd and Wedderburn’s real estate and infrastructure practice as a partner. Grant joins the firm’s Glasgow office from MacRoberts where, for the last 23 years, he has been a partner.   Grant has decades of experience and in-depth expertise in property and environmental law (in particular in contaminated land) honed from advising clients in energy and renewables; infrastructure; ports and harbours and hotels and leisure.   His projects have included onshore wind and hydro schemes, bio-mass and anaerobic digestion schemes, a tidal scheme and advising a landfill operator in the largest mineral ownership dispute to come

Seacoast Capital has added Tom Ley as a principal in the firm’s investment team. Ley has more than 20 years of experience in private equity headlined with his time leading the West Coast offices of Lincolnshire Management, HIG Capital and Guggenheim Partners.   “We’ve known Tom for many years and are excited to have him on the Seacoast team,” says Seacoast Partner Jeff Holland. “Tom will be based in San Francisco, but will be focused on expanding Seacoast’s relationships and deal flow nationwide.”   Prior to joining Seacoast, Ley opened and ran the San Francisco offices for private equity firms

International law firm Simmons & Simmons is expanding its financial markets practice with the addition of Paola Leocani and Nicholas Lasagna, who join the firm’s Milan office as partners from White & Case. Leocani (pictured) is recognised as one of Italy’s leading capital markets lawyers and is ranked in Band 1 by Chambers for debt capital markets in Italy. Her practice focuses on debt and securitised derivatives, liability management transactions and equity capital markets.   Lasagna advises clients on a broad range of bank finance and capital markets transactions, including leveraged finance, acquisition finance, bond private placements, syndicated loans and

Seyfarth Shaw has appointed Andrew Hough as a partner in the firm’s corporate department in Atlanta. Hough joins Seyfarth from Ballard Spahr where he was a partner in its Atlanta office. While there, he was a member of the business and finance, mergers and acquisitions/private equity, transactional finance, securities, life sciences and technology practice areas.   Hough advises financial and strategic clients regularly on general business matters, domestically and internationally, with a focus on mergers and acquisitions, private equity, venture capital, and outsourcing transactions. His clients operate in a wide variety of industries, including food and beverage, technology, communications, health

Independent investment bank Zeus Capital has appointed a five strong natural resources team as it looks to tap into new markets and diversify its existing sector offering. Zeus Capital’s new team will focus on mid and small-cap clients across both public and private markets, and brings together experience from across the oil and gas and metals and mining sectors.   Rob Collins will head up the newly formed team, with more than 15 years’ experience in the metals and mining, oil and gas and oilfield services sectors. During this time, Collins has led numerous capital market transactions, including IPOs across

London based private investment boutique DeBere Capital Partners has appointed Dirk Huelsermann as London partner, to strengthen investments in the technology sector and manage international investor relations. Huelsermann joins DeBere alongside his position as trustee and managing director of his family office.   Huelsermann started his investment career on the institutional side, where he ran the private equity and venture capital arm of a blue chip company. During that time he delivered the company's biggest joint venture in mobile adtech, which exited at a 30x return.   DeBere managing partner Richard Evans says: “I am delighted to welcome Dirk to

Neon has appointed Vanessa Young to the role of underwriter and solicitor – M&A insurance, reporting to the head of M&A liability insurance, Rob Brown. Young joins Neon from her previous role as legal director at Bird & Bird LLP. She brings UK and international M&A experience with considerable expertise in the renewable energy sector and advising infrastructure funds, private equity and other institutional investors.   Young’s hire is part of Neon’s broader ambition to consolidate its position as a market leader in the sector, helping to address the growing demand for M&A insurance as a result of increased use

Edge Investments, an investment house focused on the creative industries sector, has strengthened its team with the appointment of two investment professionals. Steve Carle joins the firm as investment director and Joanna (Jo) Smith as investment manager.   Carle is an experienced private equity and venture capital specialist. He enjoyed a 20-year career with the UK's two leading mid-market private equity companies – 3i Group and LDC, the private equity arm of Lloyds Banking Group – leaving in 2010 to take on a number of private successful business opportunities, before joining Edge.   Smith has spent her career in finance

Former Guernsey Bailiff Sir Geoffrey Rowland QC has become a director of Bailiwick Investments. Rowland has joined chairman David Lowe OBE and John Henwood MBE on the board of the Channel Islands-based closed-ended investment company.   He replaces Charles Parkinson who stepped down on 30 September due to a potential conflict of interests after being appointed as president of the States’ Trading Supervisory Board.   “Since Charles joined the board of Bailiwick Investments in 2011, the fund has had some very interesting times with considerable investment in a number of high profile Channel Islands businesses including Jacksons Group, SandpiperCI, ASG,