London – Sidley is pleased to announce that Ramy Wahbeh and Kaisa Kuusk have joined Sidley’s global M&A and Private Equity practice. Mr. Wahbeh will be a co-leader of Sidley’s global Private Equity practice group. They will be based in Sidley’s London office.
Mr. Wahbeh and Ms. Kuusk’s work is international with a global practice focused on cross-border mergers and acquisitions, particularly in the private equity space. They join Sidley from Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP in London where Mr. Wahbeh was deputy head of the London office.
Mr. Wahbeh is recognized as a leading lawyer with more than 20 years of experience acting for large private equity sponsors and their portfolio companies on European and global deals across a wide range of sectors, including technology, life sciences, consumer, banking, gaming, payment services, insurance, hospitality and manufacturing. He advises clients on a wide variety of private equity and M&A transactions, including control transactions, strategic joint ventures, divestitures, recapitalizations and hybrid/structured instrument investments. Mr. Wahbeh is admitted to both the New York State and Israel’s Bars.
Ms. Kuusk acts for private equity sponsors and their portfolio companies on cross-border mergers and acquisitions, public to private transactions and strategic joint ventures. She advises clients on corporate transactions across a range of industries, including financial services, technology, banking, manufacturing, gaming and insurance. Ms. Kuusk was named a Private Equity Rising Star by Law.com in 2022. She is admitted to the New York State Bar.
Sidley’s office in London has now added eight new partners in the first six months of 2023, including Private Equity Infrastructure partners James MacArthur and Ed Freeman in April, Private Equity and M&A partner Phil Cheveley in February, Restructuring partner Kieran Sharma in January and recently promoted Regulatory and Enforcement lawyer Francesca Blythe and Tax lawyer Steve Quinn. The firm’s London office boasts a roster of more than 200 qualified lawyers.
“Ramy and Kaisa have built an impressive international practice supporting large PE sponsors on cross-border transactions across businesses that are highly complementary to our leading global Private Equity practice, which supports many of the most sophisticated financial sponsors on complex global transactions,” said Tom Thesing, a member of Sidley’s Management and Executive Committees and managing partner of Sidley’s office in London. “The firm has invested significantly to serve its PE clients in recent years, with London being one of our main hubs. More client work has meant more investment in first-class PE talent — Ramy and Kaisa being our latest additions.”
“Having worked alongside Ramy and Kaisa over the years, we are delighted to have them join our growing team and expand our client service offering in a key geographic market,” said Perry Shwachman, leader of Sidley’s Financial Institutions global practice group and a member of its Management and Executive Committees.
The firm’s preeminent global M&A and Private Equity practice has nearly 500 lawyers that are engaged in the full spectrum of public and private mergers and acquisitions and private equity transactions across a variety of industries, including energy, life sciences, sports, entertainment, healthcare, real estate, consumer products, manufacturing, transportation and logistics, technology, media and telecoms, financial services and insurance and metals and mining. The practice was recently honored as a 2022 “Practice Group of the Year” by Law360 in the Private Equity category.
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Matt Messinger, Director, Public Relations, +1 312 456 4009
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