A bumper week for City and international lateral hires followed the Easter break last week with Ashurst and Greenberg Traurig among those to make strategic additions in London, strengthening their real estate and white-collar practices respectively.
Ashurst announced the hire of Alison Hardy from Squire Patton Boggs where she was national head of its property litigation team. James Levy, head of Ashurst’s London disputes practice, said: ‘Alison is a highly regarded and experienced real estate litigator. We have every confidence that she will deliver great results for clients and play a key role in further developing our capability in high value disputes.’
Similarly, US firm Greenberg Traurig made a significant lateral move in the City as it secured the services of white-collar defence and investigations specialist Barry Vitou from Pinsent Masons, who will now lead its London practice.
Vitou holds expertise working on corruption, money laundering and the UK Bribery Act. Greenberg vice chair Paul Maher said: ‘We are always exploring ways to enhance what we can offer clients. This is one of the things we will achieve with the expected addition of Barry Vitou.’
Pinsents, for its part, strengthened its restructuring team with the addition of Samantha Palmer as partner. Palmer joins from Ashfords where she was a board member and head of professional and financial risks. She also has previous experience with the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA), where she headed up the financial stability programme.
Pinsents said: ‘Samantha’s arrival enhances our ability to provide a market-leading offering in terms of the restructuring of professional practices, advising lenders to professional practices, business-structure work for investors into the legal sector and pure regulatory advice for law firms themselves.’
Elsewhere in London, experienced private client specialist Jonathan Kropman will be leaving post-merger Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner (BCLP) to join Trowers & Hamlins to lead its private wealth team. Kropman had led legacy Berwin Leighton Paisner’s private client group for 13 years.
BCLP however was at the forefront of European activity this last week, deepening its German footprint with the hire of Bernd Geier to lead the firm’s financial regulation practise in Frankfurt.
Geier leaves Dentons, where he occupied a similar role leading its financial regulation and funds practice. Roland Fabian, managing partner for BCLP Germany, said in a statement: ‘Through this expansion of our regulatory expertise, we will be able to offer clients comprehensive advice on their increasingly complex regulatory matters, particularly in the context of the impending Brexit.’
Despite the loss, Dentons also made moves in Europe as partner Giangiacomo Olivi joins the firm’s Milan office. Arriving from DLA Piper, Olivi will now spearhead Dentons’ data privacy team.
Further afield, Clyde & Co appointed Cameron Thomson as a partner in its Sydney office, with the real estate expert leaving Norton Rose Fulbright. In a statement Clydes said: ‘Cameron’s capabilities, along with the firm’s extensive footprint in the region, made establishing a dedicated non-contentious real estate practice in Australia the next logical step’
Stephenson Harwood was also among those that saw activity in Asia-Pacific, with the arrival of partner Allen Shyu from Troutman Sanders to its Beijing office, after the US firm announced the closure of its office earlier this year. Shyu, who joined Troutman from Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe’s Hong Kong office, will lead on involved in capital markets deals, M&A and private equity matters.
Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher is also committed to international hires in Hong Kong by securing two partners from US counterpart Weil, Gotshal & Manges. John Fadely and Albert Cho are poised to join Gibson’s investment funds group after their respective stints at Weil, which lasted eight and four years respectively. Gibson chairman and managing partner Ken Doran said: ‘We are focused on building a premier corporate practise in Asia that complements our private equity and M&A practices in the US, Europe and the Middle East.’
thomas.alan@legalbusiness.co.uk