Greenberg Taurig has made another lateral play in the City to build on its real estate funds hires from King & Wood Mallesons (KWM) as Weightmans, Paul Hastings, Mayer Brown, Allen & Overy (A&O) and Fieldfisher have all made new appointments.
Greenberg has hired rising star Dani Martin from Reed Smith as a partner to work alongside its new recruits from KWM’s European practice. Martin will work alongside funds heavyweight Steve Cowins and five other partners who moved to Greenberg as a team. Martin worked in the real estate team at Reed Smith and was promoted to partner in 2013. Her key clients include M7 Real Estate Limited, Starwood Capital, Trinity Investment Management, Goldman Sachs, Oaktree Capital. Last week Greenberg confirmed new clients for the firm include CBRE, Westfield and British Airways’ Pension Fund, following the team’s hire.
Meanwhile Paul Hastings has also benefited from downfall of KWM’s European arm, with the hire of Jean-Louis Martin to its Paris real estate team.
Martin, who moves with associates Arielle Messawer, David Bensimon and Quentin Jobard, was head of real estate at KWM in Paris.
Paul Hastings chair Seth Zachary said: ‘His reputation with clients in the real estate and private equity funds sectors mirrors our own strengths in our European and global offices.’
Fieldfisher has appointed Thomas Lenné as a partner in its Brussels office. Lenné joins from Baker & McKenzie, bringing 11 years of experience in the private equity, construction, aviation, banking energy and TMT sectors.
A&O has announced the appointment of David Shen to its international Intellectual Property (IP) practice. He joins from AstraZeneca where he has held the role of general counsel for China. Shen, who will join A&O’s China practice, has a comprehensive background in patent litigation and regulatory and compliance issues related to the life sciences sector.
Weightmans has hired Helen Brown as partner for the firm’s local government team in Leeds, joining from Langleys. Brown was Langley’s deputy head of insurance law and head of the public sector unit.
Mitchell Holzrichter has re-joined Mayer Brown, being appointed as a partner in the government practice and global infrastructure group in Chicago. Holzrichter’s reunion with the firm comes after a tenure as deputy chief of staff for Illinois governor Bruce Rauner’s office. He had worked at Mayer Brown in the past, from 2008 to early 2015.
In in-house news, Airbnb has hired Fiona Dormandy as general counsel (GC) for the EMEA region. Dormandy who departed Betfair in March 2016, replaces former GC Aoife McArdle, who is director of business.
