Despite the summer break being upon us, law firms have continued to invest in their recruitment strategies. Norton Rose Fulbright (NRF) continued to build its Hong Kong offering by hiring a partner from Hogan Lovells, while Squire Patton Boggs turned in-house and BLM scored a ‘major coup’.
NRF has made several additions to its Hong Kong offering of late with David Johnson joining in March from K&L Gates having previously been a partner at Allen & Overy, and the promotions of James Parker and Allan Yee in May. But, the firm took has now taken its partner headcount in the city to 23 with the addition of Hogan Lovells’ Terence Lau.
Lau, who joins as a corporate and equity capital markets partner, was made up to partner in 2008 and has worked on a variety of matters including equity offerings, initial public offerings, M&A, private equity, share repurchases and regulatory and compliance. He has also worked on joint ventures and schemes of arrangement.
Squires also made an international appointment, recruiting Rouven Schwab, general counsel of global fertilizer and specialty chemicals enterprise ICL Group in Frankfurt. Schwab joins as a partner in the firm’s chemicals industry group having been responsible for managing legal activities of over 40 business subsidiaries across Europe and Asia-Pacific.
‘We are delighted to welcome Dr Schwab to the firm’s global chemicals team. His hands-on experience working in-house at a global manufacturer will be valuable asset to our international clients,’ said Carolyn Buller, Squires’ chemicals group chief.
Meanwhile, BLM bolstered its presence in the UK by hiring the head of DAC Beachcroft’s national disease unit Paula Jefferson. She joins BLM’s specialist abuse claims team alongside DAC lawyer Catherine Davey, and employee Sarah Wright.
Jefferson has worked various public sector bodies including faith groups, the ministry of defence, schools and charities on abuse claims as well as on international injury claims such as those following the Mumbai terrorist attack.
Michael Pether, head of BLM’s public sector group, said: ‘The addition of Paula to the team is a major coup for the business and one that will only serve to improve our depth of experience and customer offering across the many sectors where historic and, all too sadly, more recent abuse arises. Her long track record of sensitively advising in high profile matters, including representing the BBC in connection with the Jimmy Savile claims, speaks for itself and we look forward to sharing the benefits of Paula’s experience with our customers.’
Finally, Balfour Beatty revealed its new group General Counsel (GC) after Chris Vaughan stepped away from the position. David Mercer takes on the role having been GC for the group’s UK construction and services businesses since 2011. Mercer previously worked in-house at BP and as a partner at Upstream Law.
michael.west@legalease.co.uk
