Six months after financial regulatory head Bob Penn quit for Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton, Allen & Overy (A&O) has replenished the ranks with the hire of Herbert Smith Freehills (HSF) partner Nick Bradbury. Bradbury returns to the Magic Circle after moving to HSF from Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer in 2015.
Bradbury was with Freshfields for more than a decade before making partner at HSF. Joining London financial regulatory partners Damian Carolan, Etay Katz and Kate Sumpter, he has extensive experience including acting for TSB on its separation from Lloyds Banking Group, ring-fencing and the senior managers regime, and the separation of Williams & Glyn from The Royal Bank of Scotland (known as Project Rainbow).
Carolan said: ‘Building on our regulatory practice is key to maintaining our ability to provide top-quality cross-border advice and expertise to our financial institution clients, particularly in light of the raft of regulation that has dominated the industry since the global financial crisis.’
Other recent high-profile finreg moves in the City include Ashurst finreg head Rob Moulton moving to Latham & Watkins. His departure was quickly followed by the exit of Nicola Higgs, who also moved to the US firm. A&O has suffered at the expense of Latham in recent months, as the US firm hired one of the City’s most high-profile banking lawyers, Stephen Kensell. Kensell had run for the senior partner post earlier in the year but missed out to former managing partner Wim Dejonghe.
Going the other way, A&O broke lockstep in July to bring in a major finance team to compete with the US elite. Joining the firm in Manhattan were Scott Zemser, Alan Rockwell and Judah Frogel from White & Case.
victoria.young@legalease.co.uk
