In a busy week for City hires, Pinsent Masons, BLP and Mayer Brown have made key appointments, as DWF, Irwin Mitchell and Burness Paull all added to their benches around the regions.
The Royal Bank of Canada’s former head of London Pauline Egan will join Pinsent Masons as a non-executive board member, the firm’s first external board appointment. The firm has also appointed while Alastair Mitchell as its first chief operating officer. With over 30 years of experience, Mitchell joins from Holman Fenwick Willan, where he was chief operating officer for over three years.
Pinsents senior partner Richard Foley said the firm has made significant progress towards achieving its vision of being an international leader in its market sectors, but there’s more to do. He added: ‘There is significant evidence that organisations which have an external viewpoint to test and challenge at board level outperform those that do not, and I welcome Pauline in that capacity. She has impressive commercial credentials and international experience which make her a strong addition to our moard. Alastair is also a highly impressive individual whose focus will be on the efficient and effective running of our business operations on an international scale.’
After leaving the firm for Hausfeld, Edward Coulson has rejoined BLP‘s corporate litigation team as a partner. Coulson advises on complex competition litigation and regularly conducts multi-party litigation, with a focus on cartel damages actions and other competition and regulatory disputes, including in relation to procurement matters and sector regulation.
Mayer Brown has introduced two Dentons partners to its London banking and finance practice. The firm has added fund finance partner Liz Soutter, who provides debt financing solutions to investment funds across a range of sectors, including private equity and financial institutions. Project finance partner Tom Eldridge also joins the firm, and is focused on the mining and metals, energy and infrastructure sectors.
As it continues with its expansion strategy, DWF will add three to its partnership as it merges with niche insurance firm Fox Hartley. Partners Trevor Fox, Michael Hitchings and Peter Barnes are to join DWF in Bristol along with 13 other staff. With close links to French, German, Japanese and Swedish insurance markets, the move will bring sector expertise to DWF’s 900-strong insurance team.
National law firm Irwin Mitchell has appointed Paddy Sturman to its banking and finance team as it continues to build its business legal services division. Joining the firm from Gordons in Leeds where he led the banking team, Sturman specialises in advising institutional lenders and corporate clients on all aspects of banking and finance including corporate acquisitions, real estate investment and development and asset based lending.
Burness Paull has strengthened its tax team with the hire of former DWF tax expert Ronnie Brown,who joins the firm’s Glasgow office. Brown has expertise in a wide spectrum of corporate tax and property tax.
madeleine.farman@legalease.co.uk