Dentons has enhanced its competition and antitrust offering by appointing longstanding Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP) partner Adrian Magnus to join its City practice.
The departure of Magnus, who was a founding member of BLP’s competition law team, follows the departure of BLP’s former competition head David Harrison who moved to Mayer Brown in May.
Having resigned from BLP after 21 years, Magnus will join Dentons’ four-partner competition team in London in November.
Cited as a ‘key player’ on EU and competition matters by The Legal 500, Magnus trained as a lawyer at Clifford Chance until 1991 before moving to legacy firm Paisner & Co in 1992.
Magnus advises on a range of competition law issues including UK and EU merger control, market investigations, public procurement and competition-related disputes across multiple sectors including financial services, transport, logistics, and media.
Major mandates included advising National Grid on a £275m, multi-party cartel damages claim as well as acting for BDO on the Competition Commission’s market investigation that led to the mandatory tendering of audit services. He further served a six-month stint as a secondee to the Financial Conduct Authority in 2013 to work within its competition department.
Dentons UKMEA chief executive, Jeremy Cohen, said: ‘Competition law is one of the most international and rapidly developing areas of legal practice, with increasing alignment throughout the world, new competition authorities in emerging markets, and ever-increasing international co-operation between competition authorities. The scope of Adrian’s work and the breadth of his experience will be a real asset to the firm.’
BLP has seen some senior moves in recent months, losing a four-strong process management team to Herbert Smith Freehills this month. However, it did launch a US securities practice in the City with the recruit of Proskauer Rose partner Katherine Mulhern and Bank of America Merill Lynch director Bobby Schrader in June.
sarah.downey@legalease.co.uk