Debevoise's London office takes on B&M finance head

Al-Turki joined B&M in 1997 to set up the financial services practice area. He will head Debevoise's European private equity funds group.

Al-Turki's departure has caused a split in the group that he leaves behind. The remaining three investment funds lawyers will be shifted to Tom Philipp's corporate group, while partner Arun Srivastava will head a financial services group of five.

Debevoise Europe managing partner Jim Kiernan told The Lawyer: "There isn't any one firm that has a private equity fund formation practice in the two most important jurisdictions - the UK and the US. We want to become the one firm that does."

Al-Turki hopes to bring clients such as Adveq Management, Lombard Odier and Apax Partners to Debevoise. His team also advised Allianz on the private equity part of its acquisition of Dresdner.