Ropes & Gray lands Willkie restructuring partner in latest London hire

Ropes & Gray has hired restructuring partner Edward Downer from Willkie in London.

Downer joins after six years at Willkie, having moved to the firm as a partner from MoFo in 2020. He previously spent time at Freshfields.

His practice focuses on cross-border restructurings, liability management transactions and insolvency proceedings.

Ropes builds in Europe

Ropes has been investing heavily across London, Paris and Milan this year as it looks to expand the European side of its private capital business.

London additions include life sciences partner Alison Dennis from Winston Taylor and private equity partner Lavinia Ralli from Clifford Chance.

The firm has also hired Paul Dali from longstanding client EQT, where he was a managing director and M&A general counsel, to join its private equity practice.

Ropes said the hire comes as restructuring activity picks up across Europe, with tighter credit conditions and a growing number of companies looking to restructure their debt increasing demand for advisers.

"Our clients need us to move seamlessly across borders, and we have been building the global capabilities to do exactly that - Edward is the latest example of the exceptional talent joining us in Europe as part of that client-focused build," Ropes chair Julie Jones said.

Downer said Ropes' US restructuring practice and London finance team were key attractions, adding that he was looking forward to helping build the practice in Europe.

Ropes’ London partnership stands at 29.