DLA Piper leads this week’s round of strategic hires with a quartet of notable additions to its London office. Steven Bryan, who left Paul Hastings in October, has joined the London corporate practice, bringing expertise in energy and infrastructure M&A along with Paul Doris from Brown Rudnick. Accompanying them, Derwin Jenkinson, who also departed Paul Hastings last year, enhances DLA’s finance projects and restructuring group.
DLA Piper also welcomed Andrew Sackney to its corporate crime and investigations team in London. Coming from Pinsent Masons, where he led the global investigations practice, Sackney brings expertise in tackling large-scale, domestic, and international investigations.
Allen & Overy has boosted its global IP practice with the addition of Gemma Barret, a life sciences specialist from Bristows. ‘A&O has an international outlook, its IP network across Europe and the US provides exciting opportunities for my practice and me generally,’ Barret remarked about her move. Her appointment marks a milestone for the firm, signaling a commitment to diversity and inclusion by achieving a 50% female partnership in its global life sciences patent litigation team. ‘A&O has a lot of initiatives to support gender diversity, and I’m keen to get involved in those,’ Barret added.
Elsewhere in the City, David Irvine, Linklaters’ co-head of leverage finance, has joined Gibson Dunn, marking yet another exit from the magic circle firm to a major US player. His expertise in private equity and cross-border financing is expected to strengthen Gibson Dunn’s finance practice.
Meanwhile, TLT has bolstered its tech, IP, and data capabilities with the addition of Michelle Sally as partner. Previously at Ashurst, where she was a senior associate, Sally’s experience in digital economy regulation—spanning AI, ad tech, NFTs, and Web3—complements TLT’s expanding presence in technology outsourcing and transactions.
Paul Weiss has announced Gareth Hughes as its new chief of European operations. Joining from Reed Smith Hughes has a decade of experience in legal business and operations management, and the firm intends to leverage his expertise in strategic planning and service enhancement to drive the firm’s growth and expansion in Europe.
King & Spalding has hired senior capital markets partner Peter Schwartz from Paul Hastings. Schwartz, who has nearly a decade of experience at Paul Hastings, joins King & Spalding’s London office. This reunites him with former colleagues Richard Kitchen, Amin Doulai, and Alon Blitz, who moved to King & Spalding in 2022.
Across the pond, the firm has made a strategic capture, bringing on board trial partner Veronica Moyé to its litigation practice from Gibson Dunn. The firm said that her expertise in antitrust and IP aligns with the firm’s expansion in Dallas, broadening its reach in Texas.
Also in the US, Blank Rome has strengthened its white-collar defence and investigations group with four new attorneys from Akerman. Bradley Henry, a partner in New York, takes the helm as vice-chair. In Washington DC, partners Kathleen Shannon, Jason Emert, and foreign associate Ekinsu Çebi Elkei join the ranks. These additions build on Blank Rome’s strategic expansion efforts, following last month’s recruitment of five white-collar attorneys.
Speaking with Legal Business, Shannon said: ‘We have known Blank Rome and its lawyers for a long time. Blank Rome has a strong reputation in the white-collar space for its deep bench and client service excellence, and has complementary maritime, international trade, and government contracts practices that will enhance the services we are able to offer clients.’