Clifford Chance brings back Paul Weiss leveraged finance duo

Clifford Chance has hired two leveraged finance partners from Paul Weiss, including its European practice head, with both returning to their former firm.

Taner Hassan, most recently head of European leveraged finance at Paul Weiss, will join in London. Silvia Menendez, who left Clifford Chance as a senior associate in 2024 before becoming a partner at Paul Weiss, will return to the firm as a partner, working across London and Madrid.

Both joined Paul Weiss during its high-profile London build-out, which began in 2023 with a string of senior hires as the US firm pushed deeper into European private equity and finance.

The latest moves also follow the departure of European M&A head Will Aitken-Davies to Kirkland earlier this year. Aitken-Davies had joined Paul Weiss from Linklaters in 2023 as one of the marquee hires in its London expansion.

Back to CC

The return of the two lawyers comes amid fierce competition among firms for senior private capital talent.

"It's a small market for talent at that level," Clifford Chance global head of debt finance Emma Matebalavu told Non-Billable, with plenty of firms competing for the top lawyers.

She said their decision to return was "validation of what we have to offer".

Hassan advises private equity firms on leveraged and infrastructure finance, including buyouts, public takeovers, mergers and restructurings. Menendez advises sponsors, borrowers and financial institutions and is qualified in England and Wales, Spain and New York.

Menendez's role across London and Madrid also plays into what Clifford Chance sees as one of its advantages in private capital: having its own lawyers on the ground across major financial centres rather than relying on other firms to provide local expertise.

“A lot of firms might need to partner with other firms, rather than handling that work as a single team,” Matebalavu said. "We really like that single-platform approach because it means nothing falls between the gaps for clients."

The model is particularly important in areas such as infrastructure, she said, where deals can be shaped by local regulation while financing standards and expectations remain international.

Taking on rivals

The hires come as Clifford Chance competes with rival firms for private capital mandates and the lawyers who advise on them.

Peter Dahlen, global co-head of leveraged finance, told Non-Billable that the private equity and leveraged finance market had gone from being "almost like a single-track event 10 years ago to a decathlon", as private capital strategies have become more complex.

"There are some competitors that do one thing really well," Dahlen said. "For us, we don't view, for example, private M&A as being the only event. To get the best client outcomes, it's more complex, more multi-faceted and you need to be able to do each element really well."

Matebalavu pointed to Clifford Chance's ability to combine M&A with leveraged finance, infrastructure, secondaries, fund finance and structured finance across its international network.

Hassan and Menendez are Clifford Chance's eighth and ninth private capital lateral partner hires this year, with recruits joining across the US and Europe.