Lovells bags two for private equity team

Lovells has continued to rebuild its London private equity capability with the appointment of two more partners.

DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary London-based private equity partner Tom Whelan is joining Lovells along with Fried Frank Harris Shriver & Jacobson senior associate Stephanie Keen, who will join the firm as a partner. Whelan and Keen have both resigned from their current firms, but their start dates have not yet been confirmed.

The appointments follow the hire of White & Case partner Alan Greenough to succeed head of private equity Marco Compagnoni.

Lovells has been trying to rebuild its private equity team since Compagnoni and his team quit the firm to join the London office of Weil Gotshal & Manges earlier this year. Their departures came hot on the heels of the resignation of partners Derek Baird, who left the firm to join Allen & Overy, and Oliver Felsenstein, who moved to join Clifford Chance in Frankfurt.

Whelan started his career at Ashurst in 1991 before moving to DLA Piper as a partner in 2002. He counts 3i and Blackstone as clients, having advised the latter on its £750m sale of the Savoy Group. He is also currently acting on the ongoing offer for the De Vere Group.

Keen also started her career with Ashurst, joining Fried Frank in 2004. In addition to private equity Keen has experience in handling public company deals.