Skadden kicks off City funds team with Macfarlanes hire
Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom is launching a City funds practice with the hire of partner Stephen Sims from Macfarlanes.
Sims, who focuses on private equity funds, is set to join the US firm to kickstart its first European funds offering, although the timescale is unclear.
The departure leaves Macfarlanes with four funds partners - practice head Bridget Barker, David Berman, Tim Cornick and Stephen Robinson - as well as a number of tax partners focusing on funds work.
Macfarlanes senior partner Charles Martin said the firm’s funds practice was “in great shape” and that the client roster was secure despite Sims’ exit. He also said that the firm was set to make up new partners in the area.
“We’re sad to see Stephen go but it’s not going to present an insurmountable problem to us,” Martin said.
The hire is expected to present Skadden with strong opportunities in fund formation, a practice that would complement its private equity and US investment management group.
Readers' comments (10)
Anonymous | 21-Sep-2011 12:40 pm
The Macfarlanes exodus continues... There must be big trouble at t'mill.
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Anonymous | 21-Sep-2011 2:23 pm
Utter rubbish. The Macfarlanes funds practice is a class act – as far as I understand, the departing partner will not be taking any clients. It’s just another case of a bright partner being lured by the big $. Could be a good career move for him, but then again it might not...
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Fund hawk | 21-Sep-2011 3:18 pm
@Anonymous 2.23pm is missing the point. It's not "just another case of another partner being lured" by the dollar. That is the issue, the American firms have the money and even more importantly they have the clients. Look where the lawyers have come from, Clifford's (Weils), SJ Berwin (Proskauer, Kirkland, O'Melveny), Travers Smith (Proskauer) and now Macfarlanes. Stephen Sim's move is not a flash in the pan! I'm not at an American firm but it's easy to see where the trend is going.
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Anonymous | 21-Sep-2011 3:25 pm
@ Anonymous | 21-Sep-2011 2:23 pm - I presume that you are a Macfarlanes partner.
For a firm of Macfarlanes' size to suffer five partner defections in barely a year is a sign of severe, firm-wide, problems. No amount of PR gloss can prevent outsiders from seeing the obvious.
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marx | 21-Sep-2011 5:50 pm
There have been quite a few departures from Macfarlanes over the last year or so. Are they all jumping or is there some pushing going on?
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Anonymous | 21-Sep-2011 7:09 pm
Its just being picked to pieces over time by bigger firms with better platforms and more money. The same as Travers. Too small, no strategy, no international business and the big money shared by too few partners. Macfarlanes are an irrelevance in the new age of clients who want global coverage.
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Anon | 22-Sep-2011 11:09 am
@ Anonymous | 21-Sep-2011 7:09 pm - The only strategy seems to be for the top of equity to make as much money as they can before retirement.
The firm is unlikely to exist in ten years' time, it is getting left behind at an increasing speed.
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Anonymous | 22-Sep-2011 11:34 am
They were being written off in similar terms in the late 80s. They haven't done badly since.
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Anonymous | 22-Sep-2011 1:04 pm
The problem for Macfarlanes is that it is too big to be a boutique, Travers is a lot smaller. It is not a cohesive enough culture, again unlike Travers. Big firms don't always win, Dickson Minto does alright, because it is clear about what it does and does it well. Macs have become too generalist and hiring senior guys in real estate only goes to prove it.
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Stephen Pipes | 22-Sep-2011 2:20 pm
Too big to be a boutique, a dwarf compared to the largest firms, Macs is holded below the water line and taking on water fast. The rats are starting to jump...
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