Amid an uncharacteristically sluggish week for lateral hires, two top-50 Legal Business 100 firms have welcomed former colleagues back to their London insurance practices.
Herbert Smith Freehills has hired Will Glassey to further bolster its solicitors’ professional indemnity and regulatory practice, as well as its professional negligence offering more broadly. He joins from Mayer Brown, where he was head of insurance disputes in London and global co-head of insurance. Before moving to Mayer Brown in 2000, he was an associate in legacy Herbert Smith’s disputes team in London.
His practice is focused on defending negligence claims against solicitors, barristers, pensions actuaries and property professionals. Glassey represents professional firms and individual professionals in regulatory investigations and disciplinary proceedings: he has handled matters before the Solicitors Regulation Authority, the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal, the ICAEW, the Serious Fraud Office, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, the FCA, and the Takeover Panel. He also advises insurers on policy coverage issues arising in claims against professionals, and represents insurers and reinsurers in reinsurance coverage disputes.
Commenting on his appointment, HSF global head of insurance disputes, Paul Lewis said: ‘We are delighted to be welcoming back Will to our disputes team in London, which will enable us to further strengthen our successful solicitors’ professional indemnity and regulatory practice. Will is a leading name in this area and a trusted adviser to many firms and individuals.’
Similarly, RPC has hired international casualty partner, Lucy Dyson, to rejoin its insurance group in London. She joins RPC from DAC Beachcroft, where she specialised in international casualty coverage and disputes. She returns to RPC (where she trained and qualified), having left the firm in 2010 to join Sedgwick Detert Moran and Arnold, and joining DAC Beachcroft in 2018. She is ranked as a Next Generation Partner by the UK Legal 500 2020 for insurance and reinsurance.
She routinely advises on domestic and international public, products and pollution liability losses across a number of sectors, including energy, mining, manufacturing, infrastructure and hospitality. She has particular experience advising on complex multi-jurisdictional exposures involving Latin America, the USA and common law jurisdictions including Australia, South Africa and the Caribbean.
RPC’s global head of insurance, Simon Laird said: ‘Lucy’s expert knowledge of the international casualty space will strengthen our support to clients in an area we have seen increasing demand for such expertise. When the opportunity presented itself to rehire someone of Lucy’s calibre, it was a win-win situation for both our clients and RPC.’
Elsewhere, Squire Patton Boggs has appointed Charles Briand as a partner in its tax strategy & benefits practice group in Paris. Briand’s practice focuses on corporate and transaction tax, cross-border M&A, the tax aspects of financing arrangements, and tax structuring and integration projects.
At Orrick Rambaud Martel since 2017, Briand previously spent nearly 12 years at EY in Paris, advising on the tax structuring operation of M&A and PE transactions. During that time, he worked for 18 months with EY’s international transactional services group in New York, where he further enhanced his cross-border tax experience and his knowledge of US tax issues.
Paris office managing partner, Carole Sportes, said: ‘With the energy and skillset that he brings, Charles will play a key role in expanding both our domestic tax work and our cross-border support for clients, as we continue to implement strategic plans to strengthen our transactional capabilities, particularly in corporate and private equity.’
Finally – although not strictly a lateral hire – Kirkland & Ellis continues the increasing trend of law firms investing in offering environmental, social, and governance (ESG) advice to clients and deepening their own ESG activities by hiring Mary Beth Houlihan as a partner in its ESG & Impact practice group in New York.
She joins from Fried Frank, where she was an associate, and focuses on ESG, including regulatory compliance considerations, in the context of fund formations, public disclosure and due diligence, and advises clients across a range of industries, including chemical manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, healthcare, real estate and retail. Her arrival follows another ESG partner, Sara Orr, who joined the firm’s Chicago office in May.
‘Mary Beth is known for her ability to look beyond compliance and advise clients on the broader sustainability considerations that are increasingly becoming central to investing. Her decade of experience helping clients to navigate complex climate, human capital, and other ESG issues in transactions has positioned her perfectly to contribute to our rapidly growing practice,’ said Alexandra Farmer, head of Kirkland’s ESG & Impact practice group.