Ashurst has seen its partner bench further diminished with the departure of disputes stalwart Ben Giaretta to Mishcon de Reya.
Giaretta – who joined Ashurst in 1999 – was made up to partner in 2009 and headed its Asian arbitration team out of Singapore for seven years. He moved back to the firm’s London office last year.
The move is a further knock to Ashurst, which has also lost two corporate partners to US firms in London since the end of October. Earlier this week, Dominic Ross left for White & Case, following James Wood’s announced departure to Sidley Austin on 30 October.
Giaretta joins Mishcon in 2018 and will be focused on commercial arbitration.
Kasra Nouroozi, partner and head of the dispute resolution department at Mishcon de Reya, said Giaretta’s ‘focus on commercial arbitration is the perfect complement to our existing strength in investor-state work, as developed by Karel Daele over the past few years”.
A spokesperson for Ashurst said: ‘Strengthening the international arbitration practice even further is a key priority for the firm. We have a very strong bench of arbitration talent in all regions at all levels and under the leadership of global head of international arbitration, Matthew Saunders, we are confident that the team will continue to achieve great results’.
Other recent Mishcon laterals include restructuring and insolvency partner David Leibowitz and real estate litigator Joanna Lampert, who were both snapped up from Berwin Leighton Paisner in April. It is the current Legal Business Law firm of the Year, having posted the strongest organic revenue growth of any Legal Business 100 firm over the past decade.
nathalie.tidman@legalease.co.uk
For analysis of Ashurst’s aim of reviving its corporate practice, read: ‘Deal view: Ashurst strives to reboot M&A brand but deal market is getting tougher’
