Kirkland & Ellis private equity partner Leith Moghli has left the firm after 10 years to join Reed Smith.
Moghli was one of the original members of Kirkland’s funds practice in London, and is understood to have left the firm in April of this year.
Moghli advises global and European fund sponsors and financial institutions on the formation of investment vehicles, focusing mainly on private equity, venture infrastructure, natural resources, energy, secondary and debt funds.
He also counsels fund managers on carried interest, co-investment and other incentive arrangements, including leveraged co-investments and separate account arrangements.
Last year, six partners left for Sidley Austin in February: Christian Iwasko, Erik Dahl, Fatema Orjela, Bryan Robson, Sava Savov and Oliver Currall. The team consisted of two equity and four non-equity partners.
While Kirkland made a number of lateral hires in the last two years – including Stephen Lucas and Jonathan Kandel from Weil Gotshal & Manges, Michael Steele from Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Matthew Elliott from Linklaters – it has also lost partners.
In 2015, leveraged finance partner Ward McKimm went to Freshfields, banking partner Philip Crump left for Gibson Dunn & Crutcher and corporate partner James Howe joined Proskauer Rose.
Since then, the firm’s hires have included Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer partner Jonathan Birks, David Holdsworth, Tim Lowe, Matthew Elliott, Paula Riedel and Stuart Boyd.
Last week, the firm hired Ropes & Gray partner Anand Damodaran, who was at the firm for five years.
