Sidley taps Clifford Chance for top restructuring duo as hiring spree continues
Sidley Austin has hired Clifford Chance’s global restructuring co-head Philip Hertz and London restructuring lead Melissa Coakley in a major City move.
The hires come as Sidley continues an aggressive London expansion, following a series of finance partner hires and last year’s loss of its previous restructuring heads.
Sidley Austin has hired two senior restructuring partners from Clifford Chance in London.
Philip Hertz, Clifford Chance’s global co-head of restructuring and insolvency, and Melissa Coakley, who leads the firm’s London restructuring team, are both joining the US firm.
The pair are considered leading names, with Hertz having been a partner at Clifford Chance since 2002, while Coakley made partner in 2020 and has spent her entire career at the Magic Circle firm.
The hires come just over a year after Sidley lost former London restructuring co-heads Jifree Cader and Mark Knight to Davis Polk.
London expansion continues
The move also sits within a broader expansion strategy in London, where Sidley has been aggressively adding partners across finance.
The firm recently hired James Inness, Latham & Watkins’ former co-head of UK equity capital markets - the latest in a string of lateral moves that has seen Sidley take 12 partners from Latham in London over the past 18 months across leveraged finance, high yield and capital markets.
In a further sign of London’s importance, Sidley relocated private equity co-leader Sean Carney from Chicago to the City earlier this year.
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