PE house goes Weil for in-house role

A five-year post-qualification experience (PQE) law-yer, Bailhache will be Black­- stone’s first UK-based in-house counsel and will report to New York-based group legal chief John Finley and managing director of the legal and compliance group Susannah Lindenfield, who is based in Hong Kong.

The latest hire follows this summer’s recruitment of former Simpson Thacher & Bartlett M&A chief Finley to replace Robert Friedman as the group’s top lawyer.

Bailhache, who worked closely with private equity partners Marco Compagnoni and Mike Francies at Weil, said his would not be an entirely UK-based role.

“I’ll be part of a global team,” he told The Lawyer. “The majority of the work is going to be Europe-based but some will flow into Asia as well.”

The move is part of a continuing trend for private equity firms to bulk up their in-house legal functions, with Bain Capital understood to be currently looking for its first-ever general counsel.

Prior to joining Weil in March 2007, Bailhache spent four years at SJ Berwin, where he also specialised in private equity transactions.