Paul Hastings Recruits Four Partners in London from Covington in Private Equity and Real Estate Push
Paul Hastings has added four partners to its London office, all joining from Covington & Burling, in a targeted build-out spanning private equity, cross-border M&A, and real estate investment. The quartet — Lyndsey Laverack, Jade Williams-Adedeji, Jack Mayall, and José Maria Rodrigues — strengthens the firm's transactional capability across two of the most active practice areas in the London market. Layerack's practice focuses on private equity and cross-border M&A, with a particular emphasis on representing investment funds and REITs (real estate investment trusts — funds that hold income-generating property) on acquisitions, disposals, minority equity investments, and complex joint ventures. Her sector focus spans corporate real estate and infrastructure, two areas seeing sustained deal flow as institutional capital seeks yield in an elevated interest-rate environment. Williams-Adedeji covers the full lifecycle of real estate ownership and investment, with experience in both debt and equity structures. The move reflects an intensifying war for transactional talent in London, where US firms are investing heavily to compete with Magic Circle practices on high-value European deal mandates. Paul Hastings has been among the most active recruiters in the City over the past two years, with this hire reinforcing its private equity and real estate platform ahead of an anticipated pick-up in European buyout activity as credit markets stabilise.
Why this matters
Lateral partner hires of this scale — four partners from a single firm — are strategic signals, not just headcount moves. Paul Hastings is positioning itself to capture mandates from the private equity and real estate fund clients that increasingly demand US-qualified or US-firm counsel on cross-border European transactions. The private equity and real estate practice areas activated here — fund-side M&A, joint ventures, debt and equity structuring — are precisely those where Magic Circle and US firms compete most directly for panel positions. The 'why now' trigger is the anticipated recovery in European leveraged buyout (LBO) activity following two years of muted deal volumes driven by higher financing costs; firms that have the talent in place when deal flow returns will capture disproportionate market share.
On the Ground
A trainee on a private equity acquisition at Paul Hastings would assist with drafting the conditions precedent (CP) checklist — the list of steps that must be completed before the deal can close — and managing the disclosure letter verification process. They would also index the due diligence report and prepare board minutes approving the transaction.
Interview prep
Soundbite
US firms hiring London PE partners en masse signals they expect European buyout volumes to recover sharply.
Question you might get
“How does a US firm like Paul Hastings differentiate itself from Magic Circle competitors when pitching for a cross-border European private equity mandate?”
Full answer
Paul Hastings has recruited four partners from Covington in London, covering private equity M&A, cross-border transactions, and real estate investment. This matters because US firms are positioning ahead of an anticipated European buyout recovery — firms with the right lateral hires now will be better placed to win mandates when deal flow returns. The wider trend is the sustained US firm expansion in the City, with Paul Hastings, Morrison Foerster, and others all making targeted hires in transactional practices rather than litigation or advisory. This suggests the US firm model of high-leverage, high-pay transactional practices is increasingly viable in London, which will intensify competition for trainees at both US and Magic Circle firms over the next few years.
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