OC continues hiring spree with addition of Eversheds partner

Spinner joins OC’s City office today (27 February) after roughly 25 years at Eversheds, including two spells as UK head of private equity and one as UK corporate chief.

He focuses on private equity deals in the financial institutions sector, as well as the leisure, software and support-services industries.

His clients include Lloyds Banking Group subsidiary LDC, HIG European Capital Partners, RJD Partners and Trilantic Capital Partners, with all four expected to transfer their mandates from Eversheds.

He also advised Lehman Brothers Merchant Banking Partners on its spin-off from Lehman Brothers in 2009 (16 March 2009) and last year led for one of the shareholders of Mercury Pharma in its sale to private equity group Cinven (22 August 2012).

Spinner joined Eversheds in Birmingham in 1987 and was made UK head of private equity in 1997, before leaving the partnership in 2000 to join supply chain management software group Wesupply (3 January 1999).

He then returned to the firm in 2002 shortly before being appointed national head of private equity again, a role he held until 2008, when he took on the wider role of head of corporate, keeping the position until 2011.

Spinner commented: “I’m a private equity lawyer through and through and I want to be at a firm that has private equity as a central part of its offering. Plus, coming to a firm like Osborne Clarke with a very strong digital business practice and a market-leading position in this gives me a leg up on some of the other firms.”

The hire follows OC’s recruitment of corporate partner John Davidson-Kelly from digital TV provider YouView, where he was head of legal (2 November 2012).

OC business transactions group head Ray Berg said in a statement: “Mark’s a quality act and is highly respected in the market. We expect to see significant wins in our London practice and anticipate gains in previously untapped private equity houses. He’s the second recent partner hire into our London corporate practice and with his arrival, we now have 50 partners in London.”