Global law firm Goodwin announced today that Geoff O’Dea will join the firm’s Private Equity practice as partner in the London office. O’Dea joins the firm from Baker & McKenzie LLP.

“We have been incredibly focused on building out our platform in the United Kingdom and Europe in response to the increasing demand from clients operating at the intersection of capital and innovation” said Richard Lever, partner in Goodwin’s Private Equity practice. “Highly skilled in distressed and special situations, Geoff will be an integral part of our private equity team, and we are thrilled to welcome him to the firm.”

“Geoff is highly regarded for both restructuring and leveraged finance and perfectly complements our team,” said private equity partner Christian Iwasko. “With Geoff and our existing bench, we are well-positioned to provide our sponsor clients with the highest level counsel in the distressed space.”

With more than 20 years of experience, O’Dea specialises in acquisition finance, corporate lending, and restructuring and insolvency. He advises sponsors, special situations funds, creditors, debtors, insolvency practitioners, and financial institutions.

O’Dea’s appointment follows significant growth of the firm’s Private Equity practice in London in 2020 including adding James Grimwood in May and the arrival of Erik Dahl, Christian Iwasko, Sava Savov, Michelle Tong, and John Van De North in September. The firm now has more than 130 private equity lawyers in Europe across its London, Paris, Frankfurt and Luxembourg offices.

Goodwin was recently named by Chambers UK 2021 and Legal 500 2021 as a leading law firm in Private Equity and was ranked by Refinitiv as the number one legal advisor (by Deal Count) for global M&A in 2020, representing clients on more than 640 completed transactions.