photo of David Allen

David Allen

Partner
Baker & McKenzie LLP

Biography

David trained at Baker McKenzie and became a Partner in 2010. David became Head of Corporate in 2020, having previously been Head of Private Equity in London since 2015 and Global Head of Private Equity since 2017.

David's team has won a number of awards, including "M&A Team of the Year (Large Deals)" in the 2019 British Legal Awards and "Private Equity Team of the Year" in the 2016 British Legal Awards.

Practice Focus

David is primarily focused on mergers & acquisitions and restructurings for private equity funds, infrastructure funds, pension funds and other clients. David also has significant experience in representing management teams in respect of their equity incentive structures. In addition, David has extensive experience in advising Japanese investors and is a regular visitor to Japan.

Representative Legal Matters

  • Advised APG on multiple acquisitions including LBC Terminals, Glaspoort (the KPN fibre to the home joint venture) and euNetworks.
  • Advised Apollo on multiple bids and acquisitions, including Sazka, the pan-European lottery group.
  • Advised Astorg on the leveraged buy-out of Sofico, the software solutions & services provider for the automotive leasing and mobility industry.
  • Advised Bain Capital on a significant number of new money, add-on deals and restructurings, including: Davigel, Fresh Direct, the Brakes sale, the Ideal Standard MENA sale to RGA, the Ideal Standard restructuring, sale of certain operations of Autodis, AD Bosch, bids for Independent Vet Care, CRH's European distribution business, the Equans division of ENGIE, NMC Healthcare & Norgine B.V.
  • Advised Bluegem Capital Partners on multiple acquisitions including: Béaba and Light & Living Group and the sale of the DMC group.
  • Advised Core Equity on the acquisition of Portman Dental and multiple bids and add-on acquisitions.
  • Advised Fiera Infrastructure on multiple bids and acquisitions, including Islalink, Wightlink and Inalan.
  • Advised Mayfair Private Equity on its leveraged buy-out of Jonckers, the tech-enabled language services provider and the add-on acquisition of Acclaro.
  • Advised Platinum Equity on multiple bids and acquisitions including Hays Logistics (and the sale of ACR Logistics), 3B, the Fibreglass Company, Nampak Cartons and Healthcare (and the separation of the businesses and sales to Graphic Packaging and Filtrona respectively), OAO Technologies, Worldwide Flight Services, Consolidated Aviation Services (and subsequent sale of Worldwide Flight Services). 
  • Advised Silver Lake on multiple bids and acquisitions including RAC and the sale of Rastreator and LeLynx.

Admissions

  • England & Wales~United Kingdom (2003)

Education

  • Nottingham University (L.P.C.) (2001)
  • University of Lancaster (LL.B.) (2000)
  • University of Nancy (LL.B.) (1999)

Languages

  • English
  • French
  • Russian

Previous Offices

  • Sydney

Speaker, "The Rise of Private Equity in the Complex Carve-out", FT Big Deal Series, Baker McKenzie Webinar, November 2021