Corporate lawyer Dr. Kamyar Abrar will join Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP’s Frankfurt office as a partner. Abrar comes to the firm from Weil, Gotshal & Manges, LLP.

“Kamyar Abrar is one of the most prominent young corporate partners in the country,” says Georg Linde, who leads Willkie’s Frankfurt office. He has advised private equity clients including Lone Star, GHO, EQT and Advent, as well as corporate clients such as copper producer Aurubis and building materials distributor Stark Group, on their transactions in Germany.

In addition, he has advised on the antitrust aspects of corporate transactions.

“Willkie is recognized in Germany as a leading transactional firm, most notably for private equity and M&A,” says Dr. Abrar. “I very much look forward to joining the team and developing new business together.”

Dr. Abrar’s addition follows the recent arrivals of market-leading partners Cornelia Thaler (real estate), Dr. Markus Lauer (M&A), Dr. Ralf Defren (finance), and counsel Matthias Schrader (litigation).

“Kamyar is a great addition to the firm’s growing pan-European private equity practice,” said London partner Gavin Gordon. “With recent additions including Thomas Binet in Paris, Ashley Young in London, and the expanding team in Frankfurt, Willkie continues to develop a top PE platform across Europe to advise our clients on a range of transactional matters – a continuation of the growth that attracted David Arnold and me to join the firm.”

“We are excited to continue the growth of our core practice,” says Dr. Maximilian Schwab, partner in Willkie’s Frankfurt office. Partner Dr. Axel Wahl adds, “We can now offer our private equity and corporate clients an even greater wealth of experience and capabilities for their most important and challenging transactions.”

Complex transactions are a particular strength of Willkie. In the recent past, Willkie has advised GoldenTree on the HSH Nordbank transaction, CVC on the acquisition of Bosch Packaging (now Syntegon) and acted on the merger of the Karstadt and Kaufhof department store chains. Willkie has also been the long-standing advisor of various leading private equity funds such as 3i, ARDIAN, EQT and PAI.