Coller Capital distances itself from MJ Hudson funding claim

Private equity firm Coller Capital has denied that it has agreed to take an equity stake in Matthew Hudson’s newly created funds boutique.

MJ Hudson launched on Monday (19 July), with former SJ Berwin, O’Melveny & Myers and Proskauer Rose partner Matthew Hudson claiming that Coller was among a number of investors that would claim a 25 per cent share of the business after next year’s Legal Services Act (LSA) came into force.

However, a spokesperson for Coller has since denied that either the firm or owner Jeremy Coller would be providing funding for the firm. It confirmed that it was a client of MJ Hudson.

The LSA, which is due to go on the statutes book in October 2011, would allow law external investment in law firms for the first time. Hudson said that the initial investment from Coller and its fellow unnamed investors would be in the form of a loan before converting into equity following the FSA.

Hudson spent more than a decade at SJ Berwin before becoming O’Melveny’s London private equity head and taking a leading role in setting up Proskauer’s London office.