DLA Piper makes bold hires to bolster Global Private Markets team

DLA Piper, one of the world's leading advisors to the global private markets ecosystem, today announces the strategic appointment of three partners in its global Finance practice across New York and London.

Effective today, Partners Kfir Abutbul and Jacob Durkin join the firm's global Capital Solutions team along with Of Counsel, Brady Lambeth, and Partner Kristine Manoukian joins the firm's Restructuring practice. These partners each bring deep experience and highly differentiated capabilities that are increasingly in demand among investors, lenders, sponsors, and companies operating in complex market environments. Their appointments reflect DLA Piper’s strategic commitment to expanding a premier global Private Markets platform that delivers seamless, cross-border advice across the full range of financing and liquidity solutions, helping clients navigate complexity and capitalize on opportunities in every market cycle.

With an established presence spanning the United States, London, Hong Kong, Dubai, and other locations across Europe, Asia-Pacific, the Middle East, South America, and Africa, the Capital Solutions team enables seamless support from cross-border investments and creative capital partnerships across developed and emerging markets worldwide.

DLA Piper’s Global Private Markets team supports alternative capital investors across the full lifecycle of capital. From fund formation and fundraising to capital deployment, portfolio management, liquidity solutions, exits, and manager-level matters, the firm helps clients raise, deploy, manage, and monetize capital worldwide. Combining market-leading investment funds, private equity, private credit, capital solutions, finance, restructuring, tax, litigation and regulatory capabilities, DLA Piper delivers seamless, cross-border advice on sophisticated transactions spanning debt, equity, hybrid, and structured capital. With one of the industry's most comprehensive private markets platforms, the firm is uniquely positioned to help clients navigate complexity, unlock value, and execute on the most significant opportunities across global markets.

Kfir Abutbul
Abutbul, based in New York, advises private equity sponsors, credit funds, and institutional investors throughout the lifecycle of private capital investments, from acquisition and investment structuring through workouts, restructurings, and exits. His practice focuses on complex capital solutions, including participating and non-participating preferred equity, convertible instruments, holding company payment-in-kind structures, and other hybrid financing products.

His experience is particularly focused on the energy transition and infrastructure sectors, where he has advised on transactions involving power generation, battery storage technologies, critical minerals, and decarbonization infrastructure. He has represented clients on matters across the US, Western Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia. Joining Abutbul is Of Counsel, Brady Lambeth who will be based in the firm's Houston office.

Jacob Durkin
Based in London, Durkin advises credit funds, alternative capital providers, sponsors, and investment banks on a broad range of complex financing transactions. His experience spans direct lending, private credit, syndicated lending, and special situations transactions, including leveraged and acquisition financings, fund-level financings, and asset-backed transactions.

His domestic and cross-border practice is particularly focused on the technology and financial services sectors.

Kristine Manoukian
Joining the firm's Restructuring practice in New York, Manoukian advises clients on complex creditor-side matters, distressed investments, liability management transactions, workouts, and Chapter 11 restructurings, bringing deep experience across the full spectrum of distressed situations. She works with ad hoc groups, creditors, purchasers, and other investors on all aspects of restructurings, recapitalizations, exchange transactions, workouts, and distressed situations.

Her practice focuses on representing investment funds and financial institutions in high-value creditor-side matters, and she has acted for steering committees and ad hoc groups of senior secured lenders, noteholders, and debtor-in-possession lenders in significant restructurings.

DLA Piper advises on all aspects of financing, across borders, sectors, and financial products. The firm's lawyers advise issuers, underwriters, selling shareholders, sponsors, arrangers, lead managers, originators, dealers, trustees, and depositaries on a broad range of capital markets offerings, including equity, equity-linked and debt securities, structured and project financings, and securitizations. The firm's interdisciplinary approach enables it to provide seamless strategic advice across many areas of the law, finding innovative solutions to complex issues and delivering bespoke financing strategies tailored to each client's unique circumstances.