Firms have been busy recruiting in London and abroad, as McGuireWoods and DWF made key London appointments and Jones Day, Hogan Lovells and BonnelliErede bolstered their international practices.
In a real estate move, DWF hired Mark Shepherd to its London office as partner after two years at Paul Hastings. He previously worked at DLA Piper and legacy SJ Berwin.
Shepherd has over 15 years’ experience in commercial real estate transactional work. Major mandates include advising the Crown Estate on its Norges Bank Real Estate Management partnership for its £1bn Regent Street portfolio.
Toby Askin, DWF’s UK real estate head said: ‘This is a key appointment in our strategic plan to continue building upon the success of our real estate profile within London, the UK and internationally.’
Still in the City, McGuireWoods hired ex-King & Wood Mallesons partner Lorraine Vaz to its debt finance practice.
Vaz is experienced on both lender and borrower financings work, with banks, debt funds and financial institutional clients. Vaz’s appointment is the firm’s third lateral hire since February, following Jeremy Davis from K&L Gates and Jennifer Kafcas from O’Melveny & Myers.
McGuireWoods debt finance chair Raj Natarajan said Vaz’s experience ‘opens a world of opportunity for McGuireWoods to satisfy the continuing movement toward U.S.-style leveraged finance in the United Kingdom.’ ‘Institutionally, McGuireWoods is built to fill that void’, he added.
On the continent, Italian firm BonelliErede brought in two senior arbitration partners to its Milan office. Herbert Smith Freehills’ (HSF) head of public international law Laurence Shore and ICC International Court of Arbitration Secretary General in Paris Andrea Carlevaris will join the firm as partners on 1 September 2017.
Shore, who was based in HSF’s New York office, will co-lead BonelliErede’s international arbitration practice from Milan. Carlevaris is re-joining BonellieErede after being a partner at the firm between 2009 and 2012.
Elsewhere in Europe, Jones Day hired antitrust partner Jürgen Beninca to its Frankfurt office. Beninca has almost 20 years’ experience in antitrust law and is also versed in internal investigations and anticorruption matters.
In Asia, Hogan Lovells expanded in Beijing, appointing corporate partner Larry Sussman, who joined 13-years at Los Angeles firm O’Melveny & Myers.
Patrick Sherrington, Hogan Lovells’ Asia Pacific and Middle East regional managing partner commented: ‘Larry is a talented and well established partner in the market in China. He has a very respectable client base acting across financial services, private equity, and the entertainment sector. Larry will be a valuable member of our corporate team in China.’