DLA Piper builds out capital solutions with three lateral partner hires

DLA Piper has added three laterals across finance and restructuring in New York and London, as demand for legal teams ready to handle complex hybrid financing and restructuring mandates heightens.

Two partners are joining the capital solutions team - Jacob Durkin in London and Kfir Abutbul in New York. Durkin arrives from Simpson Thacher, where he became a partner in 2023. He focuses on lending, private credit and special situations in the tech and financial services sectors.

Abutbul, who focuses on energy transition and infrastructure sector-focused capital solutions, comes from A&O Shearman, where he co-headed its energy and capital solutions practices. He was previously a partner at Paul Hastings, Willkie and Kirkland & Ellis.

DLA has also added Kristine Manoukian to its restructuring practice in New York, poaching her from McDermott where she was a partner for eight years, and before that a partner at Clifford Chance. She acts for investment funds and financial institutions in creditor-side matters, and distressed investments and restructurings.

The practice group du jour

The firm launched its global capital solutions practice in March by hiring three Akin partners, including capital solutions head Ranesh Ramanathan.

DLA said the practice “enables seamless support from cross-border investments and creative capital partnerships across developed and emerging markets worldwide.”

Capital solutions has become something of a buzzword among elite firms as financing structures have become more complex. Rather than sitting cleanly in a single practice area, these teams bring together lawyers across private equity, finance, restructuring, capital markets and M&A to advise on transactions spanning private credit and special situations financing to liability management exercises.

Mayer Brown launched a capital solutions practice in London in May, and Weil hired capital solutions partner James Crooks in London from Sidley in June.

Perhaps the highest-profile move came earlier this year when Simpson Thacher hired Kirkland restructuring heavyweight David Nemecek, widely regarded as a pioneer of the modern liability management exercise, to lead its new capital structure solutions practice.