A number of firms including Osborne Clarke, Baker & McKenzie, CMS and Simmons & Simmons made key hires last week.
Osborne Clarke has hired Jeremy Summers as a partner in its litigation team, joining from Slater and Gordon where he headed the business crime and regulation team. The firm’s UK managing partner Ray Berg said the hire would allow the firm to offer further white collar crime expertise, and Summers’ experience in Hong Kong would add to the formal association Osborne Clarke has with Koh Vass & Co.
Going the other way, James Mullock is leaving Osborne Clarke after almost 20 years to join Bird & Bird as partner in its international privacy and protection group. The firm’s of its co-head international data protection group Ruth Boardman said Mullock’s sector-specific expertise, particularly in advising on complex technology, media and telecoms transactions, will help the firm proactively develop data protection opportunities clients as the practice grows internationally.
Baker & McKenzie is also upping its data protection practice by hiring GE Capital’s global senior privacy counsel Dyann Heward-Mills as partner, in a move which brings the number of IT and commercial lawyers it has in London to more than 30. The firm’s London head of IT law Harry Small said Heward-Mills brings to the team a wealth of privacy and data protection insights together with a deep understanding of the regulatory pressures currently faced by clients in a number of sectors.
Meanwhile, CMS Belgium has picked up former Allen & Overy counsel Tom De Cordier to join as a TMC/data protection/life sciences partner. CMS Belgium managing partner Tom Heremans said ‘CMS has a strong focus on technology and life sciences both internationally and here in Belgium. And this strategy is paying off: more and more clients turn to us for assistance in this rapidly developing area.’
Still in Europe, Simmons & Simmons’ German office is expanding its life sciences sector group with the hire of Boris Handorn who joins as partner. In Düsseldorf Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe has hired Andre Zimmerman from the Frankfurt office of King & Wood Mallesons to head up Orrick’s German employment law practice. Orrick has also hired Annalisa Dentoni-Litta as partner in its structured finance team in Rome.
Back in Britain, Gide has expanded its London real estate practice by shifting Hugues Moreau, who had headed Gide Warsaw’s real estate practice, back to London.
Meanwhile, DAC Beachcroft has expanded in Manchester, adding Paul Ellaby as a corporate partner. Ellaby joins from Ward Hadaway where he was a partner in the Manchester corporate practice. Also in Manchester, Browne Jacobson has boosted its Manchester health team by appointing Rebecca Fitzpatrick from Hill Dicksinson, and appointing former Berrymans Lace Mawer lawyer and deputy district judge Claire Batchelor as a consultant.
Simmons & Simmons has hired James Coleman as corporate partner in its Dubai office, from Allen & Overy in Doha where he was counsel. In Asia, Ashurst has strengthened its debt capital markets team with the appointment of Jini Lee as a partner in its Hong Kong based securities and derivatives group. Lee joins from Linklaters where she had worked in the Hong Kong and London offices.
victoria.young@legalease.co.uk
