Sidley Austin has returned to Latham & Watkins in London for a senior partner hire, resuming its unprecedented raid on the world’s second largest law firm. According to people with knowledge of the move, the firm has drawn London partner Jeremy Trinder, formerly Latham’s global real estate co-chair, and a specialist in private equity real estate investment. The hire reignites Sidley’s onslaught on Latham that started in August 2024 with the hires of leveraged finance partners Jay Sadanandan, Sam Hamilton, Fergus O'Domhnaill, Joe Kimberling and Ben Wright, and continued at pace until around May 2025, with Sidley concentrating its hiring efforts on London while also taking in other cities around the world. Other Latham partner joiners in that period included London debt capital markets partners Scott Colwell and Patrick Kwak, finance partner Tania Bedi, and capital finance partners David Stewart and Vladimir Mikhailovsky. It is not often that firms recruit in such large numbers from a single rival, though other examples do exist, including in 2023 when Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison invested heavily in drawing several top partners, and their teams from Kirkland & Ellis, again in London. Among U.S. firms, London is proving a key battleground for rainmaking talent of the kind that can promise significant revenues, portable mandates and repeat work from an institutionalised clientele. Trinder has acted on several big money deals including for Asda on a recent £2.27 billion sale and leaseback. However, just this month Latham populated its real estate bench with real estate finance partners David Oppenheimer and David Varne, alongside structured finance partner Lucy Oddy, all joining from A&O Shearman. Earlier in November it hired real estate PE partner Jeremy Kenley from Gibson Dunn & Crutcher. Sidley’s play for Latham partners helped it add more than 50 laterals in 2025 but the firm’s appetite for new talent is unabated, with firm chair Yvette Ostolaza telling Law.com earlier in January that she expects her firm to add a “significant” number in 2026 that could rival last year’s. Sidley ranks firmly within the global top 10, with its nearly 2,000 lawyers generating a firmwide income of around $3.4 billion in 2024. A Latham spokesperson said: "We thank Jeremy for his contributions to the firm and wish him all the best in his next endeavor.”