Top 10 LB100 firm Norton Rose Fulbright (NRF) has said goodbye to two further senior partner departures as longstanding London-based corporate finance partner Cathy Pitt last month (January) moved to CMS Cameron McKenna to head up its investment management funds group, while the firm’s global head of sustainability and climate change Anthony Hobley left to join the Carbon Tracker Initiative (CTI) as its first chief executive officer on 1 February.
Having spent 18 years at the 2,647-lawyer firm, Pitt was involved in corporate finance work within the asset management practice, including the establishment of investment funds and corporate advisory work. She also spent seven months on secondment as a legal advisor to financial institution HSBC in 2006, followed by a stint as interim head of group legal at insurer Prudential in 2010.
On Pitt’s departure, a NRF spokesperson said: ‘We can confirm that Cathy has retired from the practice. We wish her all the best in her future career.’
Former Baker & McKenzie lawyer Hobley, meanwhile, has retired from the Norton Rose Fulbright partnership but in his new role as chief executive of CTI remains as a special advisor to the chairman and will continue to lead on thought leadership initiatives for the practice globally.
The climate change heavyweight joined Norton Rose as a partner in 2007, having previously served as general counsel at Climate Change Capital.
NRF has seen a number of partners leave its London office in the past three months, including the firm’s global head of aviation Neil Poland, who leaves for Chicago-headquartered Vedder Price’s global transportation finance practice in London this month.
Late last year saw the high-profile departure of Michael Grenfell, who joined the senior leadership team at the newly-created Competition and Markets Authority last November; longstanding antitrust partner Mark Jones who left for Hogan Lovells; and energy partner and former head of nuclear services Fiona Reilly, who left for PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) to become a director in the nuclear energy team to develop the global energy practice.
sarah.downey@legalease.co.uk
