Weil Gotshal lands first BC Partners fundraising since hiring CC team
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Weil Gotshal & Manges’ new City funds team has snatched a role for private equity giant BC Partners on its $8.6bn (£5.5bn) fundraising, one of the firm’s first major funds mandates since its four-partner raid on Clifford Chance last year.
Weil Gotshal headquarters
Weil, Clifford Chance and Simpson Thacher & Bartlett all won instructions on the matter - in which the magic circle firm teamed up with former colleagues who are now based at the two US firms.
Weil recruit Nick Benson advised the London-based private equity house on the final closing of its latest buyout fund, BC European Capital IX, which it announced yesterday. He was one of three funds partners who jumped ship from Clifford Chance late last year in a landslide that also included a tax partner (13 June 2011).
Jason Glover
Ex-Clifford Chance funds partner Jason Glover, who left the firm in 2010 (20 July 2010), led the Simpson Thacher team for BC Partners alongside New York partner Michael Wolitzer.
A Weil statement said Clifford Chance was also advising BC Partners on the deal.
Clifford Chance funds head Nigel Hatfield was not involved in the fundraising. BC Partners’ contacts at Clifford Chance for the deal were Benson and senior associate Seema Shah, who is currently on secondment at a client.
Benson and Shah were instructed by BC Partners in late 2009, roughly a year before the fundraising launched. Its first close was in December 2010, with Benson leaving for Weil a year later.
Clifford Chance and Simpson Thacher both advised BC Partners when it raised $5.6bn (£3.6bn) for a new fund early last year.
Weil has had less success cementing a relationship with another key private equity client, Apax Partners, for which Clifford Chance and Simpson Thacher won the role on its latest Apax VIII vehicle (3 October 2011). This came despite the group previously using Benson and Ed Gander, both of whom transferred from Clifford Chance to Weil (20 June 2011).
