The summer holiday recruitment round officially finished last week, with DLA Piper and Pinsent Masons making significant moves in London, while Eversheds Sutherland and Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan continued the recent wave of Asia hires with additions to their IP and litigation offerings respectively.
DLA Piper announced the hire of construction and infrastructure partner Sarah Thomas, who joins as part of a larger team of lawyers as DLA looks to bolster its practice. Thomas joins from Pinsent Masons, where she had been since 1991, acquiring experience acting on an array of major infrastructure projects in the UK and internationally.
DLA construction head, Stephen Malley, said: ‘Sarah is a leading international construction lawyer and brings a wealth of experience to our existing 50-strong UK construction team. The firm has shown its strong commitment to supporting our clients on construction and infrastructure projects within the UK and worldwide.’
Meanwhile, Pinsents made hires of its own. John Woolley joined the firm as partner in its projects team in London from Dentons, where he had been a partner since 2002.
Michael Watson, global group head of finance and projects at Pinsents, said: ‘John brings with him senior expertise and we’re delighted that he is joining us. We are certain he will be a great asset to the firm, providing best-in-class advice for our clients and complementing our international platform and market leading infrastructure, energy and real estate sector expertise.’
Pinsents also made a hire in the regions, acquiring the services of non-contentious tax partner Peter Morley in Leeds. Morley joins from Squire Patton Bogs, where he had been for 15 years, six of which serving as partner, bringing with him experience acting on M&A, restructuring, joint ventures and employment tax.
Elsewhere Eversheds recruited Cedric Lam as partner to head up the firm’s intellectual property practice in China. Lam joins from Dorsey & Whitney, where he had been partner since 2007. While experienced in advising multinational corporations on acquiring and protecting IP rights, Lam will also play a role in Eversheds corporate team in Greater China.
Stephen Kitts, the firm’s managing partner in Asia, said: ‘We are delighted that Cedric has joined the partnership. He brings new capabilities to our practice and complements our existing IP services practice in Asia, in particular our fast-growing IP team at Eversheds Harry Elias in Singapore, led by Brian Law. Cedric’s appointment is part of the continued investment in our market-leading corporate practice.’
Finishing off the recruitment round in Asia, Clyde & Co announced the hire of a new partner in Sydney with Jacinta Studdert joining the firm from Norton Rose Fullbright. Studdert will enhances the firm’s environment and planning practice in Australia, having been a partner at Norton Rose for 18 years. Her practice focuses on environment and planning requirements, compliance, risk management and regulatory issues associated with project and infrastructure development.
