White & Case advances on City's capital markets elite
White & Case advances on City's capital markets elite" />White & Case is throwing down the gauntlet to the City's leading capital markets players after securing its eleventh new hire of the year.
Former Linklaters partner Lee Parker is set to join the New York firm's London office later this month after being voted into the partnership last Monday (27 October). Parker is the ninth Linklaters lawyer to jump ship to White & Case and the eleventh new recruit to the London office since the beginning of the year.
As lawyer numbers have ballooned to nine partners and 31 associates at White & Case, so has the firm's list of top-ranking capital markets clients, including Credit Suisse First Boston (CSFB), ABN Amro and Merrill Lynch. Since earlier this year, White & Case has won places on all three of the banks' panels for capital markets work.
The moves also potentially elevates the firm's position among the City's leading capital markets firms - Clifford Chance, Allen & Overy and Linklaters - all of which advise one or more of these banks.
Among White & Case's haul of new recruits is senior associate James Turnbull, who joined the firm from CSFB in August, and Tim Jeveons, a specialist in Central and Eastern European deals, who has a relationship with CSFB, ABN Amro and Merrill Lynch.
Parker has practised in a number of jurisdictions and during his time at Linklaters, where he was a partner for 10 years, he was head of the firm's Iberian finance practice.
The magic circle firm has seen a number of capital markets lawyers leave during the past 18 months, including Charles Howarth, who joined Herbert Smith in December last year after returning from Linklaters' Frankfurt office early last year.
Nick Eastwell, global head of capital markets at Linklaters, said: "We're all good friends. We have a very large capital markets practice and I know that White & Case is successfully building a capital markets practice." He said that he had referred work to White & Case in the past when conflicted and added: "I will continue to do so."
