Witold Balaban joined Latham’s
Commenting on the appointment, Kirk Davenport, the global chair of Latham’s corporate finance practice group, said: “Witold’s breadth of experience complements our existing credit and commodity derivatives practice. By adding a comprehensive equity derivatives capability, we hope to be able to offer clients a full range of derivative product expertise.”
Balaban had been a partner with the Wall Street leader since 2001, also spending time in the firm’s
Balaban said: “[Latham’s] global platform provides an attractive opportunity for me to broaden my practice. I am very excited to be part of Latham’s plans to build a global equity derivatives team.”
Davis Polk seldom loses partners to rival US firms. Earlier this year the firm hired O’Melveny & Myers Beijing chief Howard Zhang in a rare partner-level hire of its own, with M&A heavyweight Zhang joining the firm’s office in the Chinese capital.
The firm said in a statement: "While we will miss [Balaban] as a colleague, we respect his decision at this stage in his career to continue his derivatives practice on a different platform."
