Recently floated Birmingham-based firm Gateley has turned to recently merged Midlands rival Shakespeare Martineau for its latest lateral hire, taking partner Catriona Attride to head its national private client team. Attride had led Shakespeare Martineau’s national private client team for four years.
Attride said: ‘With a number of offices established in other regions and high-quality teams, I’m looking forward to taking on the role of leading and developing the private client practice at what is a really exciting time for the company.’
In London, two boutique firms have made significant moves. Taylor Wessing partner Rosalind Connor has moved to boutique firm ARC Pensions Law. Connor will be the firm’s fourth partner. She has almost 20 years of commercial pensions experience and her expertise includes advising on defined benefit and defined benefit contribution schemes, especially in distressed situations.
Meanwhile, Signature Litigation has hired Adam Rooney from Greenberg Traurig Maher. Rooney’s practice focuses on commercial cross-border disputes, and his client base includes states, wealth management and investment funds, banks and well-known corporates. Signature partner Graham Huntley said: ‘We are obviously delighted that Adam is joining Signature. After working at the Bar he has handled a number of very interesting client projects, and he is a valuable addition to the growing team.’
Further afield in Europe, US firm Sheppard Mullin has added a duo from Dechert to bolster its fledgling competition practice in Brussels. The firm, which launched the antitrust practice last month with the hire of Jacques Derenne from Hogan Lovells, has hired Isabelle Rahman and Wim Vandenberghe. Rahman has been a competition adviser for over two decades, while Vandenberghe’s expertise is in EU regulatory as well as competition law. Sheppard Mullin chairman Guy Halgren said: ‘We have made a decisive move to bring together a superb team of EU competition and regulatory lawyers to offer our growing international client base a practice with an extraordinary depth of experience and breadth of qualifications.’
Finally at the Bar, 20 Essex Street has enhanced its energy expertise with the hire of Gordon Nardell QC, formerly of 39 Essex Chambers. Nardell is known for his work in energy sector disputes as well as contract, investment and environmental claims. Nardell said: ‘I am very pleased to be joining 20 Essex Street against a background of huge change in the energy sector. Growing Asian economies and policy uncertainty in Europe, all at a time of international pressure to develop clean power sources, have created major challenges which the law, and lawyers, are increasingly called on to resolve.’
victoria.young@legalease.co.uk