Freshfields has made a significant boost to its private credit offering in London with the hire of a trio of lawyers from US outfit Weil Gotshal & Manges.

Partner Paul Stewart has joined Freshfields’ global transactions practice alongside newly-minted partners Mark Davis and Nick Fortune, who were counsel at their former firm. 

Stewart, who joined Weil in 2019 from Ashurst, will serve as Freshfields’ global co-head of private credit and capital solutions alongside New York-based partner Damian Ridealgh. He advises credit funds, financial institutions and other investors across a range of leveraged finance loan products, with a focus on the private credit and capital solutions spaces. 

Meantime Davis acts for credit funds, financial institutions and other investors in a range of transactions, including cross-border capital solutions financings, high-yield financings, restructurings and other complex matters. He joined Weil five years ago from legacy Allen & Overy. 

Fortune has spent the past seven years at Weil, having earlier practised at Jones Day. He acted on a range of international restructurings and insolvency transactions with a focus on creditor and ad hoc group representations. 

Freshfields said the trio will work closely with Ridealgh and Ken Baird, the firm’s global head of restructuring, to strengthen its private capital and capital solutions offering. 

In a joint statement, Baird and Ridealgh commented: “We are delighted to welcome Paul, Mark and Nick. They bring a skillset which, on top of their client base and product expertise, will complement and build out our existing product offering and which aligns with our clients’ needs in this rapidly evolving market. Our asset manager clients deploy multi-asset investment strategies across equity and credit, and the addition of this three-partner team in London further bolsters Freshfields’ position as a go-to advisor for our fund clients and on a global level.”

Freshfields has been hiring from US rivals over the past few years to build its private credit expertise in the UK and US. The firm added Mary Lavelle as global co-head of private funds and secondaries (PFS) in London in January from Akin, followed by fellow PFS partner Ivet Bell in New York from Sidley Austin. Also in the US, private capital partners Eva Mak and Claire James joined in Silicon Valley and New York respectively from Kirkland & Ellis and Willkie Farr & Gallagher. 

Weil did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the departures. The firm’s private funds group boasts more than 95 lawyers globally, including a number of recent recruits. 

Former Kirkland & Ellis partner Sophie Smith joined the practice in London last month from Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton, where she was a counsel, while in September Karen Chao came aboard in New York from Goodwin Procter as the fourth partner to join the practice in the US in the past year.