Freshfields global secondaries co-head exits for Debevoise

Debevoise & Plimpton has hired Freshfields global private funds and secondaries co-head Mary Lavelle in London, adding a senior partner to its private capital practice.

Lavelle will join Debevoise's private fund transactions and investment management groups, advising sponsors and investors on secondaries and other liquidity transactions including continuation vehicles, LP portfolio sales, co-investments and recapitalisations.

She left Freshfields less than three years after joining the firm from Akin in January 2024, where she was a partner. She previously worked at O'Melveny & Myers and Macfarlanes and completed a secondment at UK secondaries pioneer Coller Capital.

At Freshfields, she was appointed global co-head of private funds and secondaries alongside New York partner Tim Clark as part of the firm’s private capital push.

Secondaries shuffle

The hire comes as major firms compete to build specialist teams around the growing secondaries market, where lawyers advise private equity firms and investors on transactions that provide liquidity in otherwise long-term private funds.

Weil hired Kirkland secondaries partner Charles Cooper-Isow in April, adding him to a London team that also includes Simon Saitowitz, who rejoined the firm from Ropes & Gray. Saitowitz is already reported to be on the move again, this time to Simpson Thacher.

The sector has also attracted major investment, with EQT agreeing a $3.7 billion acquisition of secondaries specialist Coller Capital earlier this year. Ropes and Kirkland advised on the deal.

Around $40 billion of secondaries transactions were completed globally in the first quarter of 2026, according to investment bank PJT Partners, with GP-led deals accounting for a majority of activity.

Lavelle's move also creates an unusual exchange of talent between the two firms. Freshfields hired Nick Kagan from Debevoise as a London partner in its private funds and secondaries practice in December 2025.

Debevoise presiding partner Peter Furci said Lavelle would strengthen the firm's ability to advise clients on complex liquidity transactions.