The energy sector was the focus again for a number of London firms amid a busy round of hires last week, as were the Middle East and Africa regions.
International dispute resolution partner and chartered arbitrator Philip Norman has left Clyde & Co for CMS, where he will join the firm’s infrastructure, construction and energy (ICE) disputes team. He will work from the London office, and will maintain his focus on the Middle East and Africa.
‘I will be picking up work and supporting clients on major projects in Saudi Arabia and I will continue doing work in Qatar, the UAE, and Kuwait,’ Norman told Legal Business. ‘We will also look to grow in both sub-Saharan Africa and northern Africa.’
Adrian Bell, co-head of the firm’s ICE disputes group and joint managing director for Asia and the Middle East, added: ‘We see construction and infrastructure disputes as a major area of investment. It’s almost recession-proof. And I can’t think of anywhere else in the world where there’s as much growth potential as there is in the Middle East.’
Norman concurred. ‘We are coming out of a pretty horrific number of years, not just with Covid, but with financial crisis after financial crisis over the last decade or so. And, as we emerge from that, many countries have put together plans to really boost their growth and activity through construction.’
Bell also noted the importance of Norman’s experience as an arbitrator. ‘Having more people like Philip lets us provide clients with in-house advocacy. We’re building bench strength in this highly profitable and fast-growing part of our business.’
Also, in the energy and infrastructure sector, Watson Farley & Williams has brought over Curtis, Mallet-Prevost, Colt & Mosle partner Tony Edwards, expanding the firm’s capacity in energy, infrastructure, and natural resources transactions and projects in Africa.
Edwards spoke of WFW’s building ‘head of steam’ in both the energy and natural resources sector and the African market. ‘It dovetails very nicely with the sort of work I’ve been doing for many years’, he said.
London corporate and M&A group lead Chris Kilburn set the hire in the context of the firm’s strategic ambitions. ‘Tony fits in well with where we’re focusing. Over the last few years, we’ve really built up our Africa practice, with strategic hires like Alhassane Barry in the Dubai office, Rachel Campbell in Paris, and Julian Nichol in London.’
Addleshaw Goddard has expanded its London corporate team with the hire of Middle East-focused partner Hardeep Plahe from Gibson Dunn, where he spent four years as managing partner of its Dubai office. Plahe has experience in the range of corporate transactions, with a particular focus on the financial services sector, including expertise in Middle East financial regulatory work.
Addleshaw head of M&A, Chris Taylor, said that Plahe provides an ‘essential bridge’ between the firm’s UK and Middle East teams. ‘His appointment follows another strong year for our corporate team where cross-border work takes up an ever-more significant proportion of our M&A mandates.’
Elsewhere, Fieldfisher has brought privacy, data protection, and cybersecurity specialist Sarah Tedstone into its technology and data practice from Shoosmiths.
Hazel Grant, who co-heads the technology and data group with Simon Briskman, commented on the hire. ‘Data privacy has been a major part of our client offering for a number of years, and the life sciences sector has been particularly interesting. Sarah’s skill set, her knowledge of the sector, and her experience in spreading the word about data privacy within the sector, all make her a great fit.’
The hire marks another step in Fieldfisher’s expansion in life sciences, which saw it welcome cannabis regulatory expert Robert Jappie in April. ‘There is significant potential for development’, said Tedstone. ‘There’s real encouragement to innovate. It’s a high-risk, highly regulated sector, so there are also challenges.’
In Grant’s view, this expansion will continue even in the face of adverse economic conditions. ‘Some clients, especially in tech, are constraining what might be considered optional spend – things like compliance projects that are not time-critical. But nobody is saying they won’t do those projects. They’re just delaying until the market is a bit more stable. We also see increasing enforcement, and increasing questions from users of services. And responding to those is not optional.’
Elsewhere, corporate tax has been the focus at Gowling WLG, which has brought over Matthew Poole and Paul Shaw from Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner (BCLP). Both have experience in multidisciplinary work, and will add to Gowling’s real estate sector strength.
Peter Coles has returned to HFW after just under five years at Clyde & Co, where he headed its APAC aviation practice. Previously an aerospace partner at HFW for more than eight years, Coles returns with experience in both contentious and non-contentious work.
Kennedys, meanwhile, has opened in Newcastle with the hire of Andea Ward from DAC Beachcroft. Ward joins with fellow liability specialists Tom Walshaw and Andrew Sheppard, also from DAC Beachcroft, who will support her from London. The Newcastle office marks the firm’s thirteenth in the UK, and 44th globally.
BCLP was another firm making moves outside of London, bolstering its real estate strength in Manchester with the hires of transactional partner Kristina Middleton and disputes specialist Jessica Parry, from CMS and Brabners respectively.