Trophy US hire for Freshfields as it lures former head of DoJ’s crime division

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Strategic recruitment Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has recruited former acting head of the criminal division at the Department of Justice (DoJ) to bolster its US white-collar practice.

Matthew Friedrich joins from US litigation firm Boies, Schiller & Flexner, where he had a partner since 2009. Prior to this, he spent 13 years at the DoJ in various leadership roles including the assistant attorney general for the criminal department, where he managed a team of 740 individuals on fraud, intellectual property and cross-border transactions by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS).

Taylor Wessing snares Harbottles IP head Owen

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Strategic recruitment Taylor Wessing

Taylor Wessing (TW) has secured a prominent lateral hire to its intellectual property team, recruiting the head of Harbottle & Lewis’ IP Group Mark Owen.

The arrival of Owen will add further strength to TW’s leading soft IP practice. The former Clifford Chance lawyer has advised significant media and entertainment clients on copyright, designs, trade mark, database rights and data privacy issues for the last 25 years.

‘Mark’s focus on new media clients and digital convergence issues aligns perfectly with Taylor Wessing’s TMT offering, while his excellent contacts and experience in Silicon Valley will be a real asset to our international practice,’ said Tim Eyles, Taylor Wessing’s UK managing partner.

Redundancies: Pinsent Masons to lose 13 fee-earners in employment reshuffle

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Job cuts Pinsent Masons

Pinsent Masons is to cut 13 fee-earners from its employment practice in a third round of redundancies since the firm’s merger with McGrigors last May.

The firm was keen to emphasise that this latest round of cuts was unrelated to the 62 support roles lost last year but instead come as a result of department restructuring.

In a statement, Pinsents said: ‘As a firm we continue to grow and have made a number of strategic investments over the past 12 months in those sectors and markets where we see most potential for growth.

Consolidation update: Thomas Eggar secures takeover of City boutique Pritchard Englefield

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Thomas Eggar

South East stalwart Thomas Eggar is to absorb City boutique Pritchard Englefield as the run of consolidation within the UK top 100 continues.

The merger, which will go live on 1 May and roughly doubles the size of Thomas Eggar’s City arm, will see the 58-partner firm increase its revenue from £36m to £42m. The duo will unite under the Thomas Eggar brand.

The acquisition of the 30-lawyer City practice has been billed as substantially bolstering Thomas Eggar’s profile as an institutional adviser.

Dundas & Wilson woes continue as it loses private equity duo to Mishcons

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Strategic recruitment CMS UKMishcon de Reya

Dundas & Wilson has lost private equity partners Simon Sale and Nadim Meer to Mishcon de Reya, the latest in a series of partner exits from the Scottish firm.

Sale and Meer will move to 300-lawyer Mishcon, along with senior associate Allison Keyse, once the terms of their exits have been agreed. They will join current Mishcon private equity partners Kevin McCarthy and Andrew Rimmington and the intention is that they will bring clients with them. Before joining Dundas, both worked at Hammonds (now Squire Sanders).

Stewart steps out of Goldstein shadow as Olswang hands popular head another term

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Leadership Olswang

TMT specialist Olswang has re-elected long-time head David Stewart as chief executive for another three years.

Before being elected chief executive, Stewart was the firm’s managing partner since 2007. He has been a driving force behind the corporate media specialist’s attempt to refashion itself as a credible international player. As important, Stewart was charged with becoming the public face of Olswang when thrusting and high profile chief executive Jonathan Goldstein announced his departure six years ago.

Nabarro promotes restructuring head Godfrey to international role

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Restructuring CMS UK

Nabarro has appointed restructuring and insolvency head Patricia Godfrey as its new head of international.

As part of the new role Godfrey will have a seat on the firm’s board and chair its international committee, which oversees the firm’s relationships with its European Alliance partners and international plans.

Currently Godfrey heads up Nabarro’s European group which manages the relationship firms within the European Alliance, including French firm August & Debouzy, GSK Stockmann + Kollegen in Germany, Nunziante Magrone in Italy and Spain’s Roca Junyent.

OFT senior director joins Gibson Dunn’s City office

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Competition Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher

Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher has recruited Ali Nikpay, senior director at the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) into its antitrust and competition group in London.

Nikpay joins the US firm as a partner after nine years at the OFT and brings with him Deirdre Taylor, global OFT assistant director from the cartel and criminal enforcement division. Both will be based in London and will start on April 15.

At Gibson Dunn, Nikpay will focus on strengthening the European practice, advising clients on EU and UK cartels, mergers, monopolization cases and other regulatory investigations. He will also work closely with Gary Spratling, who is a partner based in San Francisco.

FSA slaps Pru with £30m fine before its split

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Finance Freshfields Bruckhaus DeringerStephenson Harwood

The Financial Services Authority (FSA) handed out its last penalty before being split up after fining companies in the Prudential Group (Prudential) a total of £30m.

According to the watchdog, the fine relates to Pru’s failure to inform the regulator that it was seeking to acquire AIA, the Asian subsidiary of AIG, in early 2010.

Stephenson Harwood and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer landed roles advising on the fine.

CoA makes up three women in recent justice appointments

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Gender diversity

Three female judges have been appointed to the Court of Appeal (CoA) in the latest round of promotions, which has seen 10 new justices appointed.

The promotions, as made by the Queen, include Mrs Justice Gloster, Macur and Sharp, and take the total number of CoA judges to seven from four.

Gloster J was appointed to the High Court in 2004, while Sharp J spent just four years on the High Court bench before her promotion to the CoA. Macur J joins from the Midland Circuit, where she was the presiding judge.