Kirkland & Ellis has added to its private equity team in London with the hire of a new partner in London.

Roger Johnson, a Swedish qualified lawyer, joins the team from Linklaters. He had recently relocated to London from Stockholm where he had joined the firm from Hannes Snellman.

He focuses on private equity M&A and portfolio management issues and has acted for the likes of Charterhouse, Triton and Polaris Private Equity in the past.

The news is a fillip for Kirkland who have lost a number of partners in the past year in the finance, funds and corporate areas. In the M&A/private equity space, Graham White left the firm for Fried Frank while James Howe moved to Proskauer.

However the rebuilding of the private equity team in London began with the return of James (Jim) Learner, a former Kirkland partner and head of the London office who re-joined from an in-house role earlier in 2015.