SJ Berwin and Addleshaw Goddard poach private equity talent

SJ Berwin has hired Tim Wright from Clifford Chance to become a partner in the firm's transactional buy-out team, while Addleshaw Goddard has recruited Nicholas Fisher, the head of banking at Simmons & Simmons.

Jonathan Blake, head of SJ Berwin's corporate department and one of the UK's first lawyers to specialise in private equity in the early 1980s, said Wright's appointment was part of the firm's continued expansion strategy in mergers and acquisitions and buy-outs across Europe.

"We're hugely busy advising across the full spectrum of private equity activity including large buy-out transactions, development capital and fund formation. The issue of lateral hires is a feature of this booming asset class in recent years and is something from which we both benefit and suffer from time to time," he said.

Wright became a partner at Clifford Chance in 2001 and his clients include Duke Street Capital and Star Capital.

Addleshaw Goddard singled out the importance of Fisher's experience in acquisition and leverage finance as a factor in their decision to recruit him from Simmons & Simmons. Richard Papworth, the firm's national head of banking said: "We need greater strength in depth in London from experienced partners if we are to increase our share of the acquisition and leveraged finance market with the leading institutions," he said.