Debevoise & Plimpton LLP is advising Morgan Stanley Global Private Equity (MSPE) and Creative Circle in the sale of Creative Circle, a leading professional staffing firm specializing in advertising, creative and marketing talent, to On Assignment, Inc., (NYSE:ASGN) for $600 million, including up to $30 million in contingent consideration payable if certain financial performance measures are achieved in 2015. Debevoise advised MSPE when it acquired a majority stake in Creative Circle from its founders in September 2012 in a transaction that valued the company at $230 million.

When MSPE invested in Creative Circle, it cited outsized demand for highly qualified creative talent driven by the rapid expansion of interactive and digital advertising and marketing. In addition, MSPE also believed that Creative Circle stood poised to benefit from strong secular trends in the contingent labor market – a common theme behind MSPE’s approach to investing in businesses that solve “pain points” for small- and medium-sized businesses. For example, MSPE also recently invested in EmployBridge, an Atlanta-based provider of specialty industrial staffing services, which it sold earlier this year in a successful exit, also advised by Debevoise.

The Debevoise team is led by partner Kevin A. Rinker and includes partners Jeffrey P. Cunard, Jyotin Hamid and Jeffrey E. Ross, counsel Kyra K. Bromley and Rafael Kariyev, and associates Jessica Batzell, Meir D. Katz, Michael J. Milazzo, Ashwin D. Phadnis, John Rothert and Oleg S. Zakatov.

Debevoise & Plimpton LLP is a premier law firm with market-leading practices, a global perspective and strong New York roots. The firm’s commercially savvy lawyers regularly lead strategic transactions and complex disputes for world-class clients.