US litigation powerhouse Boies Schiller & Flexner has hired long-serving arbitration partner Wendy Miles from Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr to kick start a London arbitration practice.
The hire comes as the firm aims to expand its arbitration capabilities in the City a year on from setting up shop in the region. It takes the London office headcount to two partners as she joins London managing partner Natasha Harrison and two associates while litigator Duane Loft splits his time between New York and London.
Miles quits WilmerHale after 15 years at the firm, having joined in 1999 and been made up to partner in 2005. It leaves the firm with 4 partners in the London office and John Pierce who splits his time between London and New York. She built a practice focused on instructions in disputes between European and Asian parties, particularly in the energy sector, and regularly advises in international arbitration proceedings administered under international arbitral institutions and rules, including the ICC, LCIA, HKIAC, PCA and UNCITRAL.
She is known in the market for advising, alongside WilmerHale’s London international arbitration head Gary Born, southern Sudan in a ground-breaking boundary dispute at The Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague – a case that redrew the boundaries of the oil-rich Abyei region following years of civil war, and was one of the first arbitration proceedings to be aired live via the internet.
Born said: ‘We are delighted by Wendy’s move and fully supportive. Wendy is a perfect fit for Boies Schiller and we wish them all the best.’
Boies Schiller, founded in 1997 and known to be among the most profitable firms in the US, launched its first office outside of the States in London last summer with the hire of former Bingham McCutchen star partner Harrison. The launch came in a bid to service the firm’s major clients including Barclays, which Boies Schiller represented over Libor related issues.
jaishree.kalia@legalease.co.uk, tom.moore@legalease.co.uk
For more on Boies Schiller’s high-profile launch in London, see Global London – The justice play