Macfarlanes Brings Back Edward Prestwich as Credit Funds Partner

Macfarlanes has rehired Edward Prestwich as a partner in its Fund Formation team, bringing back a lawyer who spent seven years at the firm as an associate before his 2021 departure. The move lands in one of the most competitive corners of the London legal market: credit fund formation.

Prestwich first joined Macfarlanes in 2014 and left in 2021. He now returns at the partner level, with a mandate to help build out both the credit fund formation practice and the firm's wider services for credit fund managers. For a firm that has staked its positioning on private funds work, that's a deliberate bet on a returning insider rather than a lateral hire from a rival.

What does the appointment change for credit fund managers?

The practical impact sits in the scope of the advice Macfarlanes is signaling. Senior Partner Damien Crossley said the firm's credit funds work covers three connected areas: managers' house matters, their funds, and their investments. Prestwich's return adds senior capacity across all three.

Crossley framed the hire as strategic, not incidental. "Ed is a leading credit fund formation lawyer and we are delighted to welcome him back to the firm as a Partner," he said. "Advising credit funds on their house matters, funds and investments continues to be an area of strategic focus for the firm and Ed's return strongly supports that initiative."

That quote does two things at once. It confirms credit funds remain a priority practice for Macfarlanes, and it positions Prestwich as a recognized specialist in the field rather than a generalist fund lawyer. For fund managers choosing counsel in London, the appointment deepens the bench at a firm already pitching itself as a leader in the segment.

Why Prestwich chose to return

Prestwich himself pointed to the firm's standing in the market as the draw. "Macfarlanes has one of the leading credit fund formation practices in the London market and I am looking forward to helping drive forward that practice and the firm's broader offering to credit fund managers," he said.

His language matters here. He isn't describing a narrow fund formation role. He explicitly signals ambitions across the firm's broader offering to credit fund managers — the house matters, funds and investments work that Crossley outlined. That alignment between what the firm says it does and what the new partner says he will build suggests the hire was designed around an expansion of the practice, not simply backfilling a seat.

The pattern behind the move

A return after an intervening period away is a distinctive hiring structure. Prestwich knows the firm's culture, its client base and its fund formation team from his 2014-2021 stint. That prior history shortens the integration curve that lateral partner moves usually carry, and it gives the practice a partner with an established connection to the team he is rejoining.

For Macfarlanes, the calculus is straightforward. Credit fund formation has been a growth area across the London market as private credit has expanded, and firms are competing for partners who can advise managers on the full lifecycle — from the manager's own structure to the funds it raises to the investments those funds make. Adding a partner with credit fund formation experience and internal history addresses that demand directly.

What comes next

Prestwich's stated remit is to contribute to the practice's continued development. Watch for the firm to route more credit fund manager work through the enlarged team — and for rivals to respond with their own credit-focused partner hires in London.