PwC Legal has hired Marcus Fink, London head of pensions in Ashurst‘s small pensions practice. Fink moved to Ashurst from Weil, Gotshal & Manges in 2008 as a senior associate, and was made up to partner in 2012.
Fink acts for pension scheme trustees and private and publicly listed UK and multinational employers. He will be replaced by counsel John Gordon who arrives from Linklaters in June.
Revenue at PwC Legal soared in the 2015/16 financial year from £48.5m to £59.9m, an increase of 25%. Led by PwC head of legal Shirley Brookes, the legal arm of the accounting giant also posted net income of £11m. Of the total revenue, £56m of that is UK fee income.
Notably in the past 12 months PwC Legal has taken on Ashurst corporate partner Keith McGuire in Singapore, and former Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy partner Laetitia Costa last June who was brought on to run its banking and finance team in London.
PwC head of legal Shirley Brookes said: ‘We are really pleased to welcome Marcus to our legal team when he joins next month as we continue to drive our growth plans. Marcus has a fantastic reputation in the market, particularly in pensions scheme investment matters. We have invested a lot in our pensions legal practice recently and the practice is going from strength to strength. Marcus’s expertise really complements that of the existing team, as well as further adds to PwC’s first class pensions multi-disciplinary advisory practice.’
However, the accounting giant is not exempt from exits. Going the other way, in December Norton Rose Fulbright hired former board member at PwC Legal John Berriman to join its board as its new global chief operating officer, replacing former operations head Mark Whitley. In February it also emerged Bird & Bird had boosted its London office, hiring a team from PwC Legal including partners Andy Brown and Julian Balson and three other fee earners.
In March Ashurst launched a European high-yield offering, picking up Allen & Overy senior associate Tamer Bahgat, who has been made up to partner at Ashurst, and Linklaters counsel Natalia Sokolova. The firm has also hired Linklaters leveraged finance senior associate Pierre Roux in Paris, who will be made up to partner in the move. Roux’s hire follows the departure of a group of five corporate partners in Paris – collectively responsible for a book of business worth £8m to Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer.
georgiana.tudor@legalease.co.uk