In a busy week for lateral hires, firms have been actively adding to their offices at home and abroad. Linklaters has made a couple of key appointments in Asia while a host of other firms have hired laterals in the UK, the US and Gibraltar.
Eversheds Sutherland has bolstered its UK tech and real estate practices with the hire of Mark Chester from Gowling WLG. Chester is a real estate lawyer with a specialism in real-estate backed operating businesses, primarily in the technology sector.
Alternative business structure Keystone Law has also been busy, hiring Lewis Silkin’s defamation partner Jonathan Coad. Coad is chiefly experienced in advising media corporations on defamation and privacy disputes, reviewing and editing material prior to broadcast. In addition to Coad’s appointment, Keystone has strengthened its ship finance team with the dual hires of Benjamin Maltby from Ince & Co and TLT’s head of maritime Anastasia Papadopoulou. Maltby is a barrister with an expertise in luxury asset law while associate Papadopolou is experienced in advising high-net-worth individuals.
Elsewhere Signature Litigation has established a Gibraltar presence with the hire of commercial litigator Elliott Phillips as a partner. Phillips joins from local firm ISOLAS and will head Signature’s new Gibraltar office. Phillips is both a barrister and Member of Parliament in Gibraltar and specialises in global commercial litigation and high value trusts disputes work.
In New York, Dechert has hired Linklaters former US banking head Jeff Norton in New York, alongside Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison corporate partner Gareth Clark, who joined the firm on 1 May.
Linklaters has made appointments in both its China and Singapore offices. In Singapore, Niranjan Arasaratnam has joined Linklaters as a partner from Australian firm Allens, where he headed its corporate practice. Arasaratnam specialises in the corporate aspects of TMT law, and will co-head Linklaters’ global TMT sector. In China, Linklaters has hired Simon Meng and Andrew Ruff as partners, to add depth to the firm’s corporate and project teams. Meng is a corporate lawyer with over 25 years’ experience in M&A transactions while Ruff has over 16 years’ experience in energy infrastructure investments and project finance deals.
tom.baker@legalease.co.uk