London - Paul Hastings LLP announced today that leading private equity lawyer Samantha McGonigle has joined the firm as a partner in London. She is a former private equity partner at Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP and cofounder of a private equity firm that invests in growth-focused enterprise technology companies across Europe.

“Samantha’s premier experience with private equity transactions—ranging from venture capital and growth equity to some of the largest leveraged buyouts in the market—will be invaluable to our clients,” said firm Chair Frank Lopez.

McGonigle becomes the latest addition to the strong and growing European private equity practice at Paul Hastings, which was recently shortlisted for “Deal of the Year” by the IFLR Europe Awards for the second consecutive year, shortlisted for “Private Equity Team of the Year” by Legal Business Awards, and recognized by Chambers in France. Clients include Abry Partners, Oakley Capital, Francisco Partners, Insight Partners, and Apollo Global Management.

“I have been impressed by the tremendous focus on growth at Paul Hastings and am excited to combine my legal and business knowledge, along with my own growth mindset, to expand the firm’s client offerings,” said McGonigle.

Paul Hastings has grown its London office over the past 12 months with 10 lateral partners, including a Band 1 global finance team, top-ranked infrastructure and energy partners Jessamy Gallagher and Stuart Rowson, leading high-yield partner Patrick Bright, IP litigation partner Jason Raeburn, and private equity and M&A specialist Tom Cartwright, among others. Globally, the firm has added partners over the last year across a dozen practices, including finance, M&A, private equity, structured credit, securities and capital markets, restructuring, infrastructure, investigations and IP, securities and commercial litigation.

 About Paul Hastings

With widely recognized elite teams in finance, mergers & acquisitions, private equity, restructuring and special situations, litigation, employment and real estate, Paul Hastings is a premier law firm providing superior intellectual capital and execution globally to the world’s leading investment banks, asset managers and corporations.