Freshfields hires Goldman Sachs alum from Weil in New York
(Reuters) – Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer on Monday said it has hired a private equity-focused partner who spent years at rival law firm Weil Gotshal & Manges and at Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
Allison Liff will be part of Freshfields’ U.S. leveraged finance practice as a partner in New York.
Liff has previously represented private equity firms Advent International, CVC Capital Partners and Centerbridge Partners in numerous acquisition financings, Freshfields said.
She was the lead banking and finance partner who advised CVC on selling a “significant” minority stake in software firm VelocityEHS to Partners Group, another private equity firm, Weil said in August.
(Reuters) – Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer on Monday said it has hired a private equity-focused partner who spent years at rival law firm Weil Gotshal & Manges and at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. Allison Liff will be part of Freshfields ‘ U.S. leveraged finance practice as a partner in New York. Prior to joining Weil in 2013, she spent six years at Goldman Sachs , where she led the bank’s leveraged finance legal team in the United States.Liff has previously represented private equity firms Advent International , CVC Capital Partners and Centerbridge Partners in numerous acquisition financings, Freshfields said.She was the lead banking and finance partner who advised CVC on selling a “significant” minority stake in software firm VelocityEHS to Partners Group , another private equity firm, Weil said in August. Reuters reported in June that CVC was exploring a sale of VelocityEHS for as much as $2 billion.Liff said she could not comment on which of her clients will be coming with her to Freshfields , but she said there is a “good amount of overlap between Freshfields and my clients.” Freshfields , a London-founded law firm that can trace its roots back to the 1700s, has been aggressively expanding in the United States. The firm said it has added more than 200 lawyers to its U.S. offices in the last three years.”What’s really attractive to me is that it almost feels like the legal equivalent of a start-up,” Liff said, regarding her decision to join Freshfields ‘ growing private equity practice rather than another U.S. firm.In August, Freshfields hired Carol Van der Vorst from Ropes & Gray in London to join its leveraged finance team. Like Liff, Van der Vorst worked at Goldman Sachs , as a managing director in the bank’s debt underwriting group. Liff said she was excited to work with Van der Vorst again.
