Bird & Bird has bolstered its Budapest operations by adding a 20-strong Weil, Gotshal & Manges team, bringing the US firm’s presence in Hungary to an end.
Both parties insisted that the two-partner team move on 1 February was the result of an ‘amicable arrangement’ between the firms rather than headhunting by Bird & Bird.
‘I am absolutely sure the good and strong relationship will be maintained,’ said Bird & Bird international disputes head Peter Knight. However, he said there were no arrangements in place for a formal collaboration between the two firms on specific projects. For its part, Weil said it would ‘continue to support the office during a transition period and would look to refer appropriate work to them’.
Former Weil Budapest managing partner David Dederick, who specialises in cross-border M&A, private equity and real estate operations, will now co-lead Bird & Bird’s local operations along with Knight. Finance and capital markets expert Konrád Siegler has joined him, together with three counsel, ten associates and five trainees.
The move will add a financial services presence to Bird & Bird’s traditional capabilities in tech and intellectual property. The team will have a sector focus in energy and utilities, life sciences and healthcare.
Knight said the new hires, which bring the firm’s local headcount to 29, will make Budapest a key hub in the firm’s south-east Europe operations and increase its work in the Balkans. He mentioned Croatia in particular as one of the markets the firm was looking at.
Bird & Bird’s expansion in CEE comes after a busy 2017: opening its second Dutch office in Amsterdam 16 years after The Hague and announcing a representative branch in San Francisco – its first US base.
In November it teamed up with noted Chinese firm AllBright Law Offices to sign a non-exclusive co-operation agreement, which will see the 1,800-lawyer Chinese firm gain a base in Bird & Bird’s Fetter Lane headquarters this year.
As for Weil Gotshal, the Hungarian move comes after the firm lost a four-partner Silicon Valley corporate team to Hogan Lovells last spring. One year ago the firm shut another international office – in Dubai – its only partner based there relocating to Prague.