Former Linklaters senior partner lands EMEA role at Moelis bank
US-headquartered bank Moelis & Company has hired former Linklaters senior partner David Cheyne in a high-level business development and advisory role.
David Cheyne
Cheyne, whose term as senior partner at the magic circle firm ended on Friday (30 September), becomes vice-chairman of Moelis’ EMEA investment banking arm.
He will be based in London and will have the role of working on existing client relationships and winning new ones as well as advising on deals. He will remain a consultant at Linklaters, but is standing down as a partner (26 September 2011).
A spokesperson for Moelis said the bank had been a client of Linklaters but that it had a “collegiate relationship” with a number of law firms and that there were no conflict issues.
Cheyne had been Linklaters’ global corporate head between 2000 and 2005 and was elected senior partner in 2006 for a five-year term.
In a statement the bank’s chief executive Ken Moelis said: “David’s one of the most experienced and respected M&A lawyers in Europe and we’re privileged to have him join our firm.”
As a Linklaters partner, Cheyne advised on some of his generation’s top M&A deals, including Vodafone’s acquisition of Mannesmann and Billiton’s dual-listed merger with BHP.
He has been replaced as senior partner by banking partner Robert Elliott, who beat off competition from litigation head John Turnbull and European managing partner Jean-Pierre Blumberg to win the election earlier in the year (3 May 2011).
