White & Case has added a new partner to its investment funds and private equity teams in London.

Matthew Griffin joins the firm from Debevoise & Plimpton where he had been an international counsel. His work will focus on fund formation, secondaries and restructuring with a specific focus on private equity funds.

Griffin will join a wider private equity team that now includes the talents of former Linklaters partners Ian Bagshaw and Richard Youle who joined the US outfit earlier in 2014 (October 2013).

A number of US firms have been making lateral hires to boost their London private equity offerings recently, not least Latham & Watkins who have taken a number of partners from Clifford Chance in the past year.

Commenting on the move, White & Case's global head of M&A John Reiss said: "We have added Matthew because of the demands of our rapidly expanding private equity client base in Europe that have followed the arrival at the beginning of 2014 of Ian Bagshaw and Richard Youle. As well as playing an important role in the continuing growth of our private equity business, hiring Matthew supports our already strong global funds practice with dedicated coverage in all the key markets in which our clients operate."