Enterprising top-25 firm Fieldfisher has made a significant construction and projects play, hiring a team including two partners from RPC.
Dan Preston, who was RPC’s head of construction and projects, is joining Fieldfisher alongside fellow partner David Thorne in addition to a team of five associates. One of those is senior associate Jamie Key, who will join Fieldfisher as a partner.
Preston, who deals with both contentious and non-contentious construction work, will become head of construction and projects at Fieldfisher. His clients include the Morgan Sindall Group and Sir Robert McAlpine, and has represented property giant Hammerson in the Technology and Construction Court.
Thorne, who counts VolkerWessels Group as part of his client book, has in recent years focused on construction disputes, also based in the Technology and Construction Court.
Antony Phillips, Fieldfisher’s head of real estate, told Legal Business: ‘We are now a very significant real estate practice offering the entire range of services that any sophisticated real estate buyer of legal services will require.
‘They [Preston and Thorne] are incredibly high profile and highly-regarded construction lawyers, and they offer a genuinely top-tier construction team in themselves. Putting them together with our team makes us a leading player in the market.’
Preston, Thorne and the rest of the RPC team will join Fieldfisher on 1 May, where they will primarily be based in the firm’s London office.
The team appointment comes at an intrepid time for Fieldfisher, with the firm undergoing significant expansion in the last 12 months. In January, Fieldfisher set up a separate law firm focused on hedge funds, derivatives and alternative investments called Cummings Fisher.
Last year saw Fieldfisher realise its long-term ambition of opening in Spain, agreeing a tie-up with local firm JAUSAS to gain new offices in Barcelona and Madrid.