Mayer Brown and Squire Patton Boggs broaden private equity practices

US law firms Mayer Brown and Squire Patton Boggs are strengthening their private equity practices. As a matter of fact, Dr Fabio Borggreve (pictured, left) joins Mayer Brown from Squire Patton Boggs in mid-September. Squire simultaneously gains Norman Wasse (pictured, right) from McDermott Will & Emery.

Borggreve’s move to Mayer Brown is an important first step in rebuilding the private equity practice after the firm lost its corporate practice group leader and best-known face in private equity, Dr Julian Lemor, to Noerr in March. Borggreve started as an associate at Allen & Overy before moving to Squire Patton Boggs in 2018. He became a partner in 2020. He’s specialised in industrial products, aviation and technology. He has also focused on advising on cross-border transactions and took over as head of the German private equity practice in 2022.

McDermott partner Wasse, in turn, will move to Squire Patton Boggs in mid-September together with senior associate Marion von Grönheim (pictured, center). Wasse has close relationships with a number of German and US mid-cap funds, including Main Capital. He represented Main and its Swedish portfolio company Pointsharp in the acquisition of Freiburg-based encryption expert Cryptshare. He was also part of the McDermott team led by Dr Michael Cziesla that advised Investcorp on various deals in Germany.

16 offices in Europe

At the same time as the addition of Wasse, Squire announced the opening of an office in Amsterdam in October. Two corporate partners will join as founding partners: Jeroen Sombezki from Dutch law firm Van Doorne, who will become managing partner, and Selma Baouch from Taylor Wessing. The US law firm is now represented in 16 European offices (including Dublin, Madrid, Mailand and Paris).