UK top 40 firm Travers Smith has hired funds lawyer Joel Grossmark from Blackstone Credit and Insurance to expand its retailisation practice.

Grossmark joins as a partner in the firm’s funds group, bringing with him significant expertise in developing private market products for retail investors and helping shape industry policy discussions. As European legal counsel at Blackstone Credit, he helped expand its retail private credit platform in the region. His practice will focus on providing advice to fund managers on diversifying their investor base and launching new products for private bank and wealth management clients.

Travers Smith’s retailisation practice already advises private equity firms including Brookfield Oaktree Wealth Solutions and Carlyle on wealth management products.

Will Normand, a funds partner at Travers Smith, said: “Joel’s arrival will enable us to grow our retailisation practice and capitalise on the many opportunities we are seeing in this market, the hottest area in the alternative industry at the moment, and we are at the forefront of it.”

Grossmark joins after almost six years at Blackstone, having previously worked at Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation for just under five years. Before that he worked in private practice at Wragge & Co, Davenport Lyons and Linklaters. He is also a serving board member at the Alternative Credit Council.

He said: “Travers Smith is an established and ambitious firm which still remains a true and collaborative partnership and having been a client of Travers Smith for many years, I have first hand experience of the quality of advice and client experience that it delivers. Will has done a fantastic job at setting up the firm’s retailisation practice, and I am looking forward to working with him to capture the increasing demand for these products.”

Grossmark is the latest addition to Travers Smith’s funds group following the arrival of Tosin Adeyeri last year from Proskauer Rose, helping strengthen its fund formation and secondary transactions work.

However, it also lost fund finance partner Katie McMenamin to Simpson Thacher & Bartlett back in December, having also seen Ed Ford and Sacha Gofton-Salmond leave for Simpson Thacher earlier in 2023.