Shearman hires new blood for ECM launch

Until now the US firm has not had a standalone ECM practice. Instead, transactions were led by partners in its larger corporate and debt capital markets groups, notably by finance partner Mei Lian and corporate co-head Laurence Levy.

McConville, an English-qualified lawyer who started at Shearman today (18 July), will be tasked with building up the firm’s new UK ECM practice.

“We’ve been looking for the right person for a long time in response to demand from clients for a highly integrated US and English capital markets practice,” said Shearman corporate group co-head Richard Price. “We have dual law capital markets capability in other regions such as France, Germany, Italy and Hong Kong, so this has been part of our strategy for some time.”

McConville, who became a partner at Freshfields in 2000, formerly headed the international side of the firm’s Spanish securities practice. She left the firm last year for family reasons.

Earlier this year Shearman’s London capital markets team was rocked by the departure of capital markets partner Ward McKimm, who joined Kirkland & Ellis.