Latham & Watkins appoints two new partners to private credit business
Law firm Latham & Watkins has hired two new partners to bolster its growing private credit business.
Fergus Wheeler and Paul Yin have joined the practice from rival US law firm Akin Gump. Both Wheeler and Yin had been hired by Akin Gump earlier this year to launch a private credit practice at the firm.
Wheeler has previously worked at Apollo, Bridgepoint Credit and KKR Credit, before joining White & Case in 2019.
Yin joined White & Case as a partner in 2022 before moving to Akin Gump in April 2023.
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At Latham & Watkins, the new partners will work to boost the firm’s private credit business as the sector continues to grow.
“Private credit is a key strategic focus for the firm,” said Latham’s co-chair of private capital Yen Sum.
“Fergus and Paul… are recognised as leaders in the direct lending space and bring a wealth of experience advising the most active credit funds on mid-market and larger-cap lending transactions.”
According to Preqin, private credit assets under management grew to approximately $1.5trn (£1.19trn) in 2022, up from $726bn in 2018. However, a senior executive at Apollo Global Management recently estimated that the private credit market could be worth up to $40trn.
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