Clyde & Co has picked up a five-lawyer marine team from newly-merged Eversheds Sutherland, including the firm’s head of shipping.
Eversheds Sutherland’s shipping head Stephen Mackin and shipping litigation partner Jessica Maitra have led the team to ever-expanding Clydes. The group will be based in the firm’s 23 lawyer Newcastle-Upon-Tyne office.
Mackin joined legacy Eversheds from Shell Tankers, where he was a navigating officer, in 1992. He was made up to partner in 2001.
Maitra has spent her career at Eversheds and joined the firm’s partnership in 2011.
The team’s clients include Shell, North of England P&I Club and a number of Greek ship owners.
Clydes’ commercial litigation, shipping and trading disputes partner Andrew Preston told Legal Business that the firm had ‘known Steve for many years – we’ve identified him as the right person with the right practice who will add value of our business.’
‘The driver and the catalyst for all of this is that this is not a Greenfield site for us, we already have a Newcastle office following our merger with Simpson & Marwick a few years ago. It’s a tough marine market, but we’re doing well in a tough market and we are in acquisitional mode,’ Preston said.
Mackin had ‘proved adept at leading, managing and nurturing the team’, Preston added.
Last month Clydes announced its third office opening this year, merging with four-partner local law firm Garza Tello & Asociados in Mexico. Clydes took on insurance, marine and energy firm Garza Tello’s 23 lawyers based in Mexico City, and its satellite presence in the Gulf of Mexico port city of Ciudad del Carmen.
This January, the firm continued its US expansion spree, launching in Chicago and Washington DC. The firm recruited a team of ten partners from US firm Troutman Sanders. The Washington DC office opened its doors with a six partner insurance litigation team, while four partners joined the firm’s Chicago offering, giving Clyde’s capacity across the general liability and professional liability, mass tort, environmental and product liability claims and insurance litigation markets.
Clydes also took on London based procurement partner David Hansom from Veale Wasbrough Vizards, this February.
However, the firm lost four casualty partners to DAC Beachcroft late last year.
At around the same time, it emerged the firm would downsize its aviation team by three senior associates in a bid to streamline its offering.