Germany has today (12 February) taken centre stage in the European lateral recruitment market with Clyde & Co announcing the launch of a new office in Hamburg on the back of a four-partner team hire from insurance and shipping rival Ince & Co.
Clyde will be launching its second German office after Düsseldorf later this year, with Ince’s former head of English law Daniel Jones and head of admiralty and energy Eckehard Volz.
Litigation and arbitration expert Tim Schommer and cargo claims specialist Volker Lücke will also join Clyde from Ince, bringing the firm’s Germany partner headcount to six.
Based in Hamburg office since 2008, Jones has been acting for German and Scandinavian shipowners in contentious matters in London maritime arbitration and the English courts. He was also a member of Ince Consultancy, the firm’s non-legal arm launched in 2016 to offer financial, tax and project structuring advice.
Volz joined Ince in 2007 and works on shipping, marine and offshore matters, while Lücke qualified at the firm in 2006 and helped setting up its yacht practice. Schommer joined Ince as a newly qualified German lawyer in 2005 and specialises in in handling shipbuilding, ship repair, yachting and trade disputes.
The news marks the latest chapter in Clyde’s international expansion of late. The firm launched in Los Angeles , Mexico City, Washington and Chicago last year.
As for Ince, senior partner Jan Heuvels said the firm was in a ‘strong position to deal with the increasing mobility of lawyers, which is prevalent within the market’.
‘Over the last two years we have successfully restructured our business, including the adoption of a hybrid lockstep remuneration model that rewards our highest performing partners. This will inevitably result in certain partners seeking other opportunities.’
Heuvels announced the appointment of three new partners in Hamburg. Associates Götz Rahne, Christian Reinert and Martin Malinowski will be promoted to the partnership later this year, meaning the firm will have 13 partners and 23 other fee earners in Germany from 1 May 2018, spread between Hamburg and Cologne.
‘Our Hamburg office is blessed with a depth of talent and events such as this provide opportunities to reinvigorate our team and allow our lawyers to develop further in a collegiate environment,’ added Heuvels.
Meanwhile, north of the channel competition partner Satyen Dhana left CMS last week for Simmons & Simmons’ EU, competition and regulatory group.
Hogan Lovells appointed Tom McFarlane as EMEA head of transfer pricing. He joins from professional services firm Alvarez & Marsal, where he led the transfer pricing and tax-efficient supply chain management practice in London. He previously spent six years at KPMG.
Elsewhere Addleshaw Goddard brought its UK financial regulation partner headcount to six with the appointment of consumer finance specialist Clare Hughes will from Eversheds Sutherland and Lorna Finlayson, former head of Burness Paull’s financial services regulatory practice.