Shoosmiths adds private equity partner into growing corporate practice
December, 2024 - Milton Keynes, England
Shoosmiths today announces the appointment of Partner Mark Churchman to the firm’s Private Equity (PE) team within the Corporate practice.
Mark is set to strengthen the Corporate team’s capabilities by providing sectoral expertise among existing energy and infrastructure (E&I) and tech clients, while generating additional streams of work with US-based sponsors investing in the UK and Europe.
He joins the firm from Trowers & Hamlins having spent three years there as a partner. Mark has also spent his legal career developing his expertise and client portfolio at DLA Piper, Kirkland & Ellis, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher and Vinson & Elkins. His experience also included two years working in-house as a legal counsel at Quercus Investment Partners.
Mark’s practice includes acting for various US-based PE sponsors in navigating the English law aspects of acquiring UK-headquartered companies across software, manufacturing and pharmaceutical industries.
This recruitment brings the Shoosmiths’ headcount to 12 corporate partners in London and 10 PE partners across the UK. According to Pitchbook’s most recent rankings, Shoosmiths sits among the Top 5 most active law firm PE teams in the UK based on deal volumes.
According to Head of PE Amit Nayyar: “We are delighted to have Mark’s expertise on our team as PE continues to be a key focus area in our wider Corporate strategy. His recruitment shows our continued commitment to building our bench strength with senior-level hires and deepening our relationships with existing and potential clients. Mark brings an exciting breadth of expertise to our team and further solidifies our position as leading law firm in the national PE markets. His appointment adds a capability that will accelerate our PE offering in London and allow us to keep sharp in this landscape of increased volumes of inbound work from US-based sponsors.”
Head of E&I James Wood-Robertson added: “Mark’s experience in clean energy and sustainable next generation infrastructure investments is perfectly aligned with our key focus areas in the E&I sector, putting us in an even stronger position in the market and helping us continue advising our clients on their sustainable investments and developments. We are investing heavily in the E&I sector and we look forward to having Mark on our team as we continue this exciting growth journey.”
Beyond his transactional work, Mark was also involved as one of the founder members of his previous firm’s UK energy and sustainability group responsible for providing corporate input into strategies and promotions.
Commenting on his appointment, Mark said: “Shoosmiths’ bench strength, brand recognition and reputation in the UK corporate and PE spaces offer the ideal platform to service sponsor clients that rely on collaborative cross-practice legal advice – particularly across IP, tax and incentives, competition and E&I. I look forward to collaborating with this first-class team of advisers to contribute to the firm’s clear strategic goals.”
Shoosmiths’ corporate practice generated £19.8m in fee income in the first six months of the 2024/25 financial year and has continued to hone excellent prospects for increasing market share. PE and M&A have continued to shine through as two of the most profitable areas of business of the firm continuing to generate opportunities for other departments across the firm.
