DLA Piper has appointed private equity veteran Chris Field to its Corporate practice, effective September 2025, in a strategic hire to bolster its global offering.
Dual qualified in England & Wales and South Africa, Chris, who will be based in the firm’s London office, is a highly respected practitioner advising a range of global and national PE houses, Sovereign Wealth Funds and investors on all aspects of their PE and M&A activities across the UK and Europe. Listed in the IFLR 1000 for PE and M&A, Chris’s work allows him to collaborate with other practice groups, including Tax, Finance, Employment and Real Estate.
Jon Kenworthy, Global Co-Chair of DLA Piper’s Corporate Group, commented: “Our global private equity and M&A teams are recognised as some of the industry’s most active, and with Chris’s appointment, we aim to continue to increase our market presence in line with our strategic growth strategy. With Chris’s cross-border and sector skillset, our teams will continue to be well-positioned to help our clients with their most complex and important transactions and afford them access to the benefits of our global platform.”
In the last 12 months, DLA Piper’s private equity and M&A teams have advised on some of the largest deals, including:
- Supporting Grant Thornton UK’s majority investment in the firm by International private equity firm, Cinven.
- Advising AirTrunk on its AUD24 billion sale to Blackstone, the largest data centre transaction to date, and the largest transaction in Australia for 2024.
- Assisting Global IBO Group Ltd on its business combination with Bukit Jalil Global Acquisition 1 Ltd, a publicly-traded special purpose acquisition company. The combined company, GIBO Holdings Limited, commenced trading on the Nasdaq Global Market on May 9, 2025, under the ticker symbol “GIBO”.
- Advising MidEuropa on the acquisition of a controlling stake in FAMAR, a well-established pharmaceutical contract development and manufacturing organisation from ECM Partners and Metric Capital Partners.
The firm has the strongest M&A practice in the world and has been cited as the highest-ranked legal advisor for M&A (by volume) for the 15th consecutive year by Mergermarket, and the most active legal advisor for European PE for the seventh consecutive year by PitchBook.