Dentons has hired SJ Berwin corporate finance partner Nicholas Plant to lead its private equity group in the UK, Middle East and Africa.
Plant’s practice focuses on advising private equity houses on domestic and cross-border leveraged buy-outs. He also advises on general M&A and joint ventures. Most recently, he has been particularly involved in acting for US corporates, healthcare sector clients and on deal-by-deal financings.
Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer continues to boost its disputes practice in Hong Kong with Herbert Smith Freehills’ (HSF) financial services regulatory partner Tim Mak set to join the firm.
Mak will work alongside Asia head of financial services Royce Miller and contentious regulatory partner Georgia Dawson. Mak is tri-lingual and will specialise in both contentious and non-contentious regulatory matters but has particular experience in civil and criminal proceedings and investigations.
Olswang has concluded an extensive governance review that has seen the creation of an executive committee responsible for the firm’s management and strategy.
The review, led by general counsel Simon Callander, has also resulted in a complete overhaul of the firm’s board, which will now reflect the voice of the partnership and act as a check and balance to the committee’s primary decision-making role.
Pinsent Masons has promoted 14 lawyers to its partnership with a further 11 awarded the position of legal director.
The firm made up 11 partners across its UK offices and a further three in Asia, in the second round of promotions since its merger with Scottish firm McGrigors last May.
LPO provider Integreon has lost its business development chief John Croft to legal services provider Elevate, just weeks after CMS Cameron McKenna and Osborne Clarke scaled back their agreements with the outsourcing giant.
Elevate, whose founder is former Integreon CEO Liam Brown, announced Croft’s London-based appointment on 19 April, as the company seeks to launch a ‘new alternative legal services provider’ in the UK. Croft will establish Elevate’s technology and services in the UK and European markets.
King & Spalding has recruited King & Wood Mallesons Melbourne co-head of arbitration Peter Megens as a partner in its Singapore office.
Megens, a senior construction partner, is King & Spalding’s third Singapore lateral hire in under a year. Clifford Chance oil and gas partner Merrick White joined the firm in October of last year, shortly followed by project finance partner Kelly Malone from Norwegian firm Wikborg Rein in December.Malone was previously head of his firm’s global projects team.
Network Rail has cut its legal roster from 12 to five core firms in a review that sees newly merged firm Dentons appointed to the panel.
Other firms awarded full service contracts for work in England and Wales are Bond Pearce (Bond Dickinson on 1 May), Eversheds and Addleshaw Goddard. Maclay Murray & Spens has been awarded the contract for Scottish law matters. All four were reappointed from the previous panel.
DAC Beachcroft has announced the appointment of a five-strong professional indemnity (PI) team from Morgan Cole to its Newport office.
The team, led by partner Clare Hughes-Williams, comprises one associate and three solicitors who will work as part of the professional and commercial risk practice from 1 May.
BHP Billiton senior executive David Williamson is set to rejoin Ashurst in Australia, where he was a lawyer at legacy firm Blake Dawson for 28 years. It is understood that he will return in June as a partner after spending three years at the mining giant.
Williamson joined the company as head of group legal in 2010 and for almost the last two years also served as chief compliance officer.
Pinsent Masons has launched a technology media and telecoms (TMT) practice in its Singapore office through the hire of local specialist Bryan Tan. Tan is moving from
Keystone Law Corporation, a boutique law firm in Singapore specialising in TMT, where he was founding partner and director.
