Milbank has hired a team of six lawyers from Latham & Watkins in London to bolster its alternative investments offering. 

The team is led by partner Alex Martin and includes Kristine Kozicki, who joins as a special counsel having been an associate at Latham, and four more associates.

News of the team’s move coincides with a report by Financial News today (8 August) that five leveraged finance partners have left Latham’s London office to join Sidley Austin, including Jayanthi Sadanandan and Sam Hamilton. 

For his part, Martin departs Latham after three years at the firm, having earlier spent nine years at Weil Gotshal & Manges, where he made partner. Earlier he practised at legacy Allen & Overy. 

Martin’s practice focuses on collateralised loan obligation (CLO) work. He has worked with clients on a range of acquisitions and transactions, including CLO manager M&A processes, the establishment of structured credit platforms, asset-based financing structures, receivables financings, private credit portfolio financings and other fund finance transactions. 

At Latham, he acted for bank arrangers on European CLO transactions, including Citibank and Deutsche Bank, and also advised Blackstone Credit on the establishment and ongoing operation of its debt investment business. 

“We’re pleased to have someone of Alex’s calibre join Milbank,” said Andrej Wolf, co-managing partner of Milbank’s London office. “Last year, we welcomed a leading team of private equity lawyers from Dickson Minto and we expect to continue to add top-tier talent in London. Alex is an important senior addition to the team and is a great example of our progression on this trajectory.”

The Dickson Minto team included seven partners and around 20 associates, in a hire that significantly boosted Milbank’s corporate offering in the City. The office has also seen losses recently, including a five-lawyer structured finance team that defected to legacy Allen & Overy in February. 

Meantime Latham moved to strengthen its City finance bench in May with the hire of partners Jonathan Brownson, Joydeep Choudhuri and Prue Criddle from Cahill Gordon & Reindel.  

The firm has also seen a number of exits in Germany recently, including senior M&A lawyer partner Tobias Larisch, who left last week to open a new office in Frankfurt for Kirkland & Ellis. It also saw an 11-lawyer bankruptcy team join Willkie Farr & Gallagher in Germany in June, just a few weeks before capital markets partners Oliver Seiler and David Rath moved over to White & Case in Frankfurt.  

Latham had not responded to a request for comment at the time of publication.