While last week saw a switch around among the City’s competition practices with Greenberg Traurig Maher, Kirkland & Ellis and Mayer Brown all making senior hires in the field, there were several other prominent moves as CMS Hasche Sigle hired a Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer partner, Mishcon de Reya built up its employment team in London and King & Spalding continued its City push.
In Cologne, CMS Hasche Sigle carried out a significant hire bringing in real estate partner Heinz-Joachim Kummer from Freshfields. Kummer, who was described in The Legal 500 as ‘professionally excellent’, has more than 20 years’ experience with a focus on real estate, both transactions and financing, as well as projects.
Meanwhile in London, Mishcon bolstered its employment practice with McDermott Will & Emery partner Sharon Tan. She joined the US firm in 2005 after having been an associate at Allen & Overy, and was made partner in 2011.
Tan handles both contentious and non-contentious employment matters with a particular focus on High Court litigation such as enforcement of restrictive covenants. Daniel Naftalin, head of employment at Mishcon, commented: “Sharon’s expertise in complex, high-value and high profile employment cases complements our existing practice and will add further weight to our established reputation in this area.
Also in the City, King & Spalding kept up its expansion by recruiting Nick Cherryman from Fried Frank Harris Shriver & Jacobson. Cherryman was formerly Fried Frank head of international disputes in London and will join Stuart Isaacs QC, who joined from Berwin Leighton Paisner in January, and Tom Sprange, who took silk earlier this year.
He is recommended in the Legal 500 and previously worked as a commercial chancery barrister for 12 years. Cherryman’s experience includes work for TNK-BP, Goldman Sachs, Motorola and NokiaSiemens.
Reggie Smith, head of King & Spalding’s global disputes practice said: ‘London is a key global hub for disputes and it is imperative for us to offer the very best lawyers to service our international client base. Nick brings added expertise and experience in international commercial litigation and arbitration to our existing team in London. So far this year, we have seen partner Tom Sprange appointed a Queen’s Counsel (QC), recruited partner Stuart Isaacs QC and also promoted Ruth Byrne. It is an exciting time for the practice.’
Ropes & Gray also continued its growth in London with the hire of Chadbourne & Parke partner Partha Pal. A specialist in structured finance deals, Pal will focus on supporting real estate deals, in particular commercial assets involving real estate lending and commercial mortgage-backed securities.
He joined Chadbourne in 2013 as partner having spent 16 years in Sidley Austin’s London, New York and Singapore offices. Ropes recently launched a commercial litigation practice with the hire of Thomas Ross from K&L Gates.
Meanwhile, NewLaw provider Halebury bolstered its team with a group of hires including Carolyn Lazarus who has held positions at Oxford University Press and the Co-op, Anomika Bedi who was worked in-house at Acccenture and was formerly special counsel at Baker & McKenzie, and Vincent Collins who joins from being lead lawyer of Tesco Digital and was formerly head of Amazon’s UK legal team.
It follows on from the firm’s recent additions of Linda Kabi and Sharon Evans earlier this year. Kabi had been general counsel at Nowtel and held in-house positions with a range of telecommunication companies while Evans joined from Expedia Affiliate Network.
michael.west@legalease.co.uk
