Ahead of the expected summer slowdown, UK firms have made a spate of City hires, with Mishcon de Reya, K&L Gates and Excello Law all recruiting.
Mishcon de Reya has also hired in the City, taking private client partner Martin Davies from Clyde & Co. With extensive experience in the Middle East, Davies served as a partner at the firm for six years, and previously headed the international team at Howard Kennedy.
Boosting its London and New York offices, K&L Gates has hired Judith Rinearson into its Fintech practice. Rinearson joins from Bryan Cave along with Linda Odom, who joins the firm’s Washington DC office in its consumer financial services practice.
At Ashurst departures remained on the cards with the exit of Brian Dunlop, the firm’s CFO since 2013. It has been a tough 12 months for Ashurst, with revenues dropping 10% and a retreat from its European offices in Stockholm and Rome.
The firm has also seen the exit of several partners, with White & Case taking on two partners earlier this year, hiring disputes specialist Mark Clarke and capital markets partner Jonathan Parry. But it has also recently exploited the ongoing exits at King Wood & Mallesons, bringing in banking partner Robert Andrews to its London office.
Virtual firm Excello Law has added a leading Islamic finance lawyer to its team, hiring Ashley Freeman from Charles Russell Speechlys. Freeman was head of Islamic finance at the firm and for 13 years the head of legal at the central bank of Bahrain.
And after three years on the top bench, Supreme Court justice Lord Toulson is stepping down from his full time role. Toulson will retire officially in September after the Supreme Court’s summer break but will serve in a part-time role on a rotating panel of judges until a full-time justice is appointed.
matthew.field@legalease.co.uk