Posted on

From bellwether to perfect storm: can Travers pull through choppy waters?

‘It keeps me fully occupied, 24 hours a day. I do sleep, obviously, but I’m dreaming about stuff that I might want to do the next day.’

Edmund Reed, Travers Smith’s recently reappointed managing partner, describes the all-encompassing nature of his role with a smile. He is on a mission to demonstrate that his zest for the job remains undiminished after three and a half years navigating a challenging period for Travers, punctuated by some indifferent financial results and large swathes of partner departures.

Continue reading “From bellwether to perfect storm: can Travers pull through choppy waters?”

Posted on

Revolving Doors: Clifford Chance, Akin and Dechert bolster PE and finance teams in the City

Leading the leading lateral moves this week, Cadwalader has hired a trio of fund finance partners to its London office. Bronwen Jones arrives from Reed Smith, where she spent six years following two decades at Macfarlanes. She is joined by Douglas Murning and Matthew Worth, both joining from Ashurst.

Continue reading “Revolving Doors: Clifford Chance, Akin and Dechert bolster PE and finance teams in the City”

Posted on

‘I’m going to continue using my voice’ – Irwin Mitchell’s Alison Eddy on her new D&I role

After stepping down as London managing partner following more than 12 years in the role, Alison Eddy – who won the Women in Law Lifetime Achievement Award at last year’s Legal 500 UK ESG Awards 2025 – has taken up a new role as the firm’s partner ambassador for inclusion.

She sat down with Legal Business to talk about her career, D&I, how much progress has been made, and how much still needs to be done.

In 1995 I was approached by Irwin Mitchell to help set up their London office. I was already doing medical negligence work. I got into it because trade unions offered their members free legal advice, and increasingly enquiries were coming in about medical negligence. I handled that, one of the other partners that I joined with did all the employment work, and the third did personal injury work. It wasn’t easy. I had five children aged between three and eleven, and there was no flexible working. Nobody talked about wellbeing, work life balance or diversity and inclusion. We went from the three of us in that office to now 450 people, with 60 partners.

Twelve years ago I was appointed London managing partner. I was the first female managing partner at the firm. We’ve got 23 offices nationally now, with ten regional lead partners looking after all those offices, and over 50% of those partners are women.

‘I had five children aged between three and eleven, and there was no flexible working’

In 2008, I helped set up the diversity and inclusion board. Of course, everyone’s got a D&I board now, but not many firms did back then. Some of us started saying we needed to be doing better at getting women into senior roles and attracting lawyers with diverse characteristics. Senior leaders bought into that. It’s impossible to make change unless senior leaders are committed to it. And the firm remains committed today – all seven of the networking groups we set up are still going.

We started out looking at the barriers for women. We looked at unconscious bias, lack of role models, all of that. One issue is in recruitment, obviously, and another is retention and promotion. What is it that prevents women from staying with the business as they move through their careers? One big issue is support for families, and we’ve been very good on family friendly policies. We’ve seen some really impressive results. 54% of our partners are women, 67% of our recent full equity promotions went to women, and we have one of the lowest gender pay gaps.

‘I see a danger in having too many silos – it risks being more exclusive than inclusive’

This is really about gender balance though – it’s no good having whole areas of the business that are all one gender. We have one of the lowest gender pay gaps in the legal sector, but the problem we have is that our admin roles, paralegals, apprentices, and PAs are predominantly women, and those are the lower-paid roles. We need to look at these roles and say, “Why aren’t we attracting more men?

People talk about intersectionality a lot more, and it’s obviously a good thing. I see a danger in having too many silos. I know of some businesses that have a group for everything – where we have IM Respect, our group for race and faith, other firms might have separate groups for Muslims, Hindus or Jews. I understand why, but it risks being more exclusive than inclusive.

People ask: “Why is diversity important?” There’s a social and business impact. It’s clearly the right thing to do, but there are also lots of business reasons – you get more perspectives on what you’re doing, you can better connect to a broad range of clients, and you’re more open to ideas and innovation.

If you have self-belief and work hard, you can succeed – you just need a bit of luck. Social mobility is one of the biggest issues for the legal sector. Schools and families need to enable children to have big dreams. Obviously not all kids are going to be suited to all careers, but an awful lot can happen with hard work, if you really want to do it. To that end, we do a lot of work with children and in schools, including with an organisation called Prime, to provide opportunities to those who may not otherwise have them. We also partner with the National Literacy Trust. Literacy is everything. Your life chances are incredibly enhanced if you have good literacy at a very early age.

‘Why is diversity important? It’s clearly the right thing to do but there are lots of business reasons too’

We as a profession have made an enormous amount of progress. Coming back to gender, for example: we celebrated the first 100 years of women in law in 2019. But actually, this progress didn’t happen over 100 years – most of it was in the last 30 years, and an awful lot of it has been in the last ten years.

I don’t sense any anti-D&I backlash at all. Nobody at UK law firms is questioning whether we should still have D&I boards or networking groups. Of course, there is this anti-woke thing going on in the wider culture. I really hate to see that. It’s all become weaponized, when it should just be about increasing social justice, about more equality and more humanity.

Although I have a new title, a lot of what I do hasn’t changed. I’ve always been out there talking about diversity, working within the firm and with other organisations to promote the cause. A senior person in the business having this role shows Irwin Mitchell’s commitment to fostering an inclusive culture and sharing ideas on how to have a more equitable legal profession.

The shortlist for the Legal 500 ESG Awards 2025 is out now – all the details of this year’s nominees, as well as how to attend, are available on the event website.

alexander.ryan@legalbusiness.co.uk

Posted on

Client favourites: ranking the most highly recommended LB100 firms

New research drawing on the views of almost 80,000 law firm clients has revealed the LB100 firms that are most highly recommended by those using them, with Travers Smith, Lewis Silkin and Sacker & Partners among the top performers.

The findings are based on answers to a single question posed to Legal 500 referees as part of the research process for the annual L500 rankings – “on a scale of 0–10, how likely are you to recommend this firm?”

Of the hundreds of thousands of responses to this question, the firms ranked in the LB100 generated more than 77,000 responses, enabling the Legal 500 to re-rank them by a new Net Promoter Score (NPS) benchmark, a market research metric used to quantify client satisfaction.

NPS is calculated by taking the percentage of ‘promoters’ (respondents that score firms nine or 10) and subtracting the percentage of ‘detractors’ (those scoring firms six or less).

Looking at these NPS scores, the highest scoring firm in the LB100 is specialist pensions boutique Sacker & Partners with 82.9%, just ahead of Leigh Day (81.8%) and Scots firm Shepherd and Wedderburn (81.3%). 

The top five is rounded out by Wiggin (80.5%) and Lewis Silkin (80.2%), just ahead of the highest scoring top 50 firm – Travers Smith, on 80%. At the opposite end of the scale, the lowest scoring firm received an NPS score of just 46.9%

Sackers senior partner David Saunders told Legal Business: ‘We are proud to top these rankings and immensely grateful to our clients for putting their trust in us. This demonstrates the continuing appeal of our specialist model and the strength of our deep bench of talented lawyers who combine technical expertise with a real understanding of wider market developments.’

Lewis Silkin joint managing partner Jo Farmer struck a similar note. ‘We think of our clients as part of our team – and think of ourselves as being part of theirs. We’re delighted to see that this approach is working well.’

Broader horizons: the top scoring international firms

Breaking down the LB100 into sub-groups of their closest peers offers insight into how similar firms stack up against each other.

Slaughter and May has emerged the highest scoring firm among the magic circle, with 79%, reflecting its position as the highest scoring UK firm for NPS in the Global 100, ahead of Linklaters and Clifford Chance.

Looking across all of the international firms within the LB100, the top-scoring firm is Bird & Bird on 79.1%, just ahead of HFW (78.2%) and Simmons & Simmons on 76.9%.

Bird & Bird London head Phil Sherrell told Legal Business that the results offer independent verification of the firm’s own client satisfaction research.

‘The feedback chimes with the results of our own recent client listening programme, in which our clients emphasised the quality and consistency of our advice and service, as well as the business relationships that we form with them, as particular strengths.’

‘We’re really delighted that our clients have had such positive experiences working with Bird & Bird and are particularly proud to be ranked as the best performing international law firm. In the end though, it all comes back to people; our lawyers are curious, collegiate and commercial in the advice they give, and we think that’s why our clients love working with them.’

Under one roof – London firms stand out

Breaking down the scores by firm type, London-only firms have the highest average score, with 75%.

This puts the group ahead of international firms (with an average of 72.3%) and national and regional firms, which average 71.3%. According to Saunders, this result reflects the more joined-up service on offer at firms operating from just one office.

‘One of the key advantages of all being together under one roof is our strong and inclusive culture which allows us to share knowledge effectively and really tailor our service to meet our clients’ needs.’

The benefits of a closely-knit, single-office team are also cited by Travers managing partner Edmund Reed. ‘Our people enjoy working together across specialisms, with clients whose business they know very well,’ he says. ‘That gives our clients one extra important ingredient – our teams tend to know one another personally, and so we genuinely care about getting to the best solution for them.’

Posted on

‘Fresh perspectives’ – Gibson Dunn’s new London co-heads set out City plans

‘It’s exciting for people joining the firm because there is plenty of growth potential,’ says Rob Carr, one of the newly appointed co-partners in charge at Gibson Dunn in London, as he sits down with fellow office head Osma Hudda for their first interview since taking on their new roles.  Continue reading “‘Fresh perspectives’ – Gibson Dunn’s new London co-heads set out City plans”

Posted on

International roundup: Reed Smith debuts in Atlanta with 15-partner team while Broadfield enters Hong Kong with Sidley trio

Reed Smith has opened a new office in Atlanta with a 15-partner team from Morris, Manning & Martin (MMM) and Greenberg Traurig. The new office will open with 37 lawyers in total, with the partners comprising 13 from Atlanta firm MMM and two Greenberg shareholders.

Continue reading “International roundup: Reed Smith debuts in Atlanta with 15-partner team while Broadfield enters Hong Kong with Sidley trio”

Posted on

‘You’re never done’ – Simmons’ Hoyland on finding the firm’s identity and what’s next

‘You’re never done. I’ve been at this for 14 years and I’ve still got a long list of things to do. It makes you wonder what you’ve been doing this whole time,’ muses Simmons & Simmons managing partner Jeremy Hoyland as he prepares to step down from his leadership role.

The City HQ of the firm he’s led since 2011 is quiet the Friday afternoon that Legal Business comes to visit; fitting for the softly spoken, but reflective, Hoyland. A stand at reception with copies of The Big Issue serves as a gentle signpost that there is life beyond the bottom line at Simmons.

When LB sat down with Hoyland for his first leadership interview back in 2011, aged 43, he was chomping at the bit to start ticking off a lengthy to-do list he had drawn up. Three terms later, while the list remains unchecked, Hoyland is clear on what he feels he has achieved.

‘One of the first things I said to the partnership was that we were going to face up to uncomfortable truths. We had huge strengths and what I wanted to do was focus on those strengths.’

‘You’re never done. I’ve been at this for 14 years and I’ve still got a long list of things to do. It makes you wonder what you’ve been doing this whole time.’

For Hoyland that’s meant routing the firm to a clear sector focus rather than trying to be all things to all people.

Carrying on the work his predecessor Mark Dawkins started, under Hoyland the firm has focused on asset management and investment funds; financial institutions; healthcare and life sciences; and technology, media and telecoms (TMT).

Pointing to the strategy’s success, Hoyland says: ‘A huge portion of what we do in corporate is for the sector clients. Transactional work for funds is a huge part of our practice, and many of our best deals fall within the sectors. But that’s not how a traditional City corporate practice is aligned, and it certainly isn’t where Simmons was in 2010.’

Income from the four sectors now makes up more than 80% of firm-wide revenues, with financial institutions the biggest contributor (at around 32%), followed by asset management (28%), with healthcare and TMT each bringing in around 10% based on LB estimates.

This focus has had a clear impact on results. Under Hoyland’s leadership, Simmons’ revenue increased from £251.7m in 2011-12 to £574m in 2023-24—a 128% rise. Meanwhile, PEP has also more than doubled, climbing by 102% from £529,000 to £1.07m over the same period. The increase from the point at which Hoyland officially assumed the managing partner position is even steeper, rising 140%  from May 2011, when PEP was £445,000.

According to both Hoyland and former partners, just as important as the firm’s sector realignment has been Hoyland’s ability to help Simmons – and its partners – feel comfortable in their own skin.

‘Before, we weren’t clear about the advantages [our sector focus] gave us and what it meant for people to fit within those sectors. If you’re a finance lawyer, it was always pretty obvious how you fit. If you’re a litigator or a corporate partner – maybe not so much,’ says Hoyland.

As one former partner comments: ‘Before Jeremy, the strategy was “How can we be more like this group of firms?” or “How can we overtake that group of firms?”’

Hoyland took up the mantle in the wake of failed merger talks with Mayer Brown in 2010 and, while it has long been assumed that a Simmons merger with a US firm was inevitable at some point, it hasn’t happened.

Hoyland maintains that no substantial talks have taken place during his tenure. That’s not to say there haven’t been opportunities though.

‘One of Jeremy’s great strengths is saying no,’ says a former partner, who suggests that Hoyland has turned down multiple approaches during his time in charge.

So how does Hoyland think his firm is positioned now? During his time at the helm, the battle for talent has grown ever more competitive, particularly over the last five years. And it’s clear that while Simmons’ 50% pep growth over this period is impressive, it lags behind those at the top of the market.

Hoyland acknowledges that others can outgun Simmons looking at financial metrics alone but maintains that success is about more than just money. ‘If you only compete on money there’s always some firm that is more profitable than us; we have to hire people for whom money is not the only thing they are looking for.’

‘I’m not sure the partners have always enjoyed all of my emails, but taken in the round, I think it’s been a good ride.’

He points to 32 lateral partner hires globally in 2024 as evidence of Simmons’ success. Fourteen of these hires were in London, with recent recruits including Clifford Chance’s former head of UK real estate construction, Marianne Toghill, and DLA Piper’s head of UK competition, Sarah Smith.

‘If your client base is in one of our sectors, then this is a better platform for you than most other firms. And it’s also an extremely good place to work,’ he enthuses.

Hoyland argues that the ‘super profitability’ at the top of the market has left a gap for firms like Simmons, with competitors pricing themselves out of certain markets and clients. However, he worries about the sustainability of this dynamic and the impact it may have on both lawyers’ wellbeing and how the industry is perceived externally.

He laments the fact that none of his three children so far want to follow him into the career he loves, put off by what they see as the industry’s ‘crazy expectations’.

Not that Hoyland is going to have too much time for regrets. While his time as managing partner is coming to a close in April, Hoyland’s journey with Simmons is not. He is set to remain a partner but will relocate to the firm’s Milan office after the summer to take up a new role that will see him travelling around the firm’s European offices and helping partners to pitch together for more cross-border business as well as working with clients to identify services they would like to see as Simmons expands in Europe.

Describing himself as a ‘details person’, he admits that his desire to be managing partner was partially driven by being ‘sufficiently arrogant to want to be in control, to make decisions, and to manage the purse strings,’ meaning that letting go may be hard.

With his successor yet to be decided, Hoyland acknowledges that he is ‘absolutely’ going to find it difficult watching someone else do his old job. He mentions a recent conversation with a former magic circle managing partner:

‘He said that when he finished it felt physically like someone had lifted the weight of his shoulders. I wonder whether I’m going to feel like that. I don’t feel like that now but maybe I will. I sort of hope so.’

And, as to how his time as managing partner will be remembered at Simmons?

‘I hope I’ll be perceived to have been successful and to have made a contribution to the firm. I’m not sure the partners have always enjoyed all of my emails, but taken in the round, I think it’s been a good ride.’

Jeremy Hoyland Bio:

Sep 1991 – Joins Simmons

April 1997 – Makes partner

April 2005 – Takes up leadership of financial markets team,

May 2011 – Begins first term as managing partner

April 2025 – Due to step down as managing partner and transition to a new EU role.

tom.cox@legalease.co.uk

Posted on

Freshfields US revenues rise 26% as firm breaks £2bn mark for first time

Revenue at Freshfields rose to more than £2bn for the first time in 2023-24, the firm’s newly released LLP accounts have confirmed, following the decision to stop releasing financial information in line with its UK-headquartered peers.

The accounts, filed with Companies House, show significant growth in revenue and operating profit, although profit available for discretionary division dropped by 9% after a change to accounting procedures meant previous year’s figures were restated. Continue reading “Freshfields US revenues rise 26% as firm breaks £2bn mark for first time”

Posted on

Money’s worth: how do clients rate Ashurst’s value proposition?

Ashurst

Value: Billing and efficiency

76.09

Billing transparency 75.01

Billing: value for work done 75.09

Communication & case/matter management 80.95

All scores are global and /100.

Of all of the factors involved in client satisfaction, value for money is among the most important, not least for GCs under pressure to keep a lid on their legal spend.

And while the best law firms do not come cheap, a reputation for providing value can be a clincher when it comes to winning work.

In our previous data blogs, we’ve looked at how top firms stack up against each other for the quality of their lawyers – based on the views of their clients – but that is just one of a range of metrics we can benchmark firms on.

The responses from hundreds of thousands of Legal 500 referees that we receive every year offer detailed insight into how firms compare on billing and efficiency, and by taking Ashurst as an example, the data reveals how clients view the firm’s value proposition.

(The rest of this article is available to logged-in users only. If you are not logged in and unable to do so above, please click ‘Forgot your password?’ below to gain access to the full article). Continue reading “Money’s worth: how do clients rate Ashurst’s value proposition?”

Posted on

Ex-RPC chief joins relaunched Rosenblatt as listed parent company calls in administrators

A 40-strong team has broken away from RBG Legal Services to relaunch Rosenblatt as an independent firm, as its listed parent company RBG Holding Group – which also owns City law firm Memery Crystal – prepares for administration.

The group relaunching Rosenblatt, led by name partner Ian Rosenblatt, has also recruited former RPC managing partner Jonathan Watmough, who is returning to law firm management after an eight-year hiatus with a new role as chair of the City disputes firm.

Continue reading “Ex-RPC chief joins relaunched Rosenblatt as listed parent company calls in administrators”

Posted on

‘A well-kept secret’ – inside Covington’s City corporate push

While other flashier US firms might attract more headlines for their London growth strategies, Covington & Burling has for some time been building up a sizeable presence in the capital.

Over the last decade, the firm’s City base – which dates back to 1988 – has grown its headcount by around 50%, and is now home to around 140 lawyers.

And 2024 saw the firm make bold steps in the City corporate market with a trio of high-profile lateral hires from Sidley Austin – M&A partner Phil Cheveley, private equity partner Lyndsey Laverack and private equity real estate partner Jade Williams-Adedeji.

‘Covington has always wished to keep the focus on the great work of its clients and shied away from publicity for its own sake,’ said Laverack. ‘The firm is a bit of a well-kept secret, notwithstanding the fact that we’ve been in London for nearly 40 years.’

Other major City hires last year included the addition of Adrian Chiodo from Paul Hastings to lead the firm’s European leveraged finance practice – and the firm’s growth in London is far from over, according to Washington DC-based corporate head Catherine Dargan.

‘We have been investing in London for some time, and we expect that to continue,’ explained Dargan. ‘We remain committed to strategically identifying and pursuing lateral hires and are always open to opportunistic additions. However, we are not focused on growth for growth’s sake. We are eager to grow in London, but we are determined to do it the right way.’ 

The firm’s most recent hire, Cheveley, who joined in November, brings a wealth of experience from firms including legacy Shearman & Sterling, where he served as EMEA and Asia M&A head, and Travers Smith, where he spent 17 years and was head of corporate M&A and equity capital markets.

Cheveley described Covington as an ‘excellent fit’ for his practice, emphasising the firm’s focus on healthcare and life sciences – for which it has a top-tier London practice – as well as technology and financial services. ‘Covington already has a strong M&A practice in London, but the opportunity is there to further deepen the bench strength,’ he said. 

‘The firm has excellent relationships with marquee clients globally, and there’s huge potential to further leverage and enhance those relationships to win increased volumes of transactional mandates from them.’ 

Cheveley’s arrival was preceded by Laverack and Williams-Adedeji also making the move from Sidley in July, and he described being reunited with his former colleagues as ‘a very happy coincidence’.

‘I’ve known Covington for quite a number of years; over time, we had some high-level discussions, but things fell into place shortly after Lyndsey and Jade – people I’ve always enjoyed working with – decided to move. My decision, however, was almost entirely independent of their move.’

The hires take lawyer count in Covington’s London corporate practice to more than 60, sitting in a global team of approximately 330.

The lateral investment investment comes amid a broader pickup in M&A activity, which Cheveley expects to continue, driven by favourable financing, emerging alternative capital, potential US tax cuts, and a shift toward lighter regulations and more deal-friendly merger controls. 

However, he cautioned: ‘There is naturally uncertainty around what form these reforms will take and the impact they will have. This uncertainty, coupled with the fundamental frailty of a number of national economies, would suggest that the return to high levels of M&A activity remains some way off, with only a modest improvement in the early part of 2025 as the new transacting landscape is established.’ 

Across private equity, Laverack noted that digital infrastructure and renewable energy are key areas of focus. She added: ‘We also expect to see continued investment in the fintech area, specifically in payments and money transmission, and increasing use of crypto currencies on those platforms. We are [also] still seeing strong interest in senior living and other living sectors.’ 

As for the recent wave of lateral moves at other firms, Dargan argued that some of these moves are ‘more defensive than offensive’, and that Covington’s all-equity partnership is a clear differentiator when looking to attract talent.

‘Globally, there is significant movement among firms, with lawyers seeking different platforms or higher compensation. We are fortunate to operate with a single-tier partnership, which means laterals are joining us primarily for the value we offer – our platform, culture, relationships, and broader expertise.’ 

elisha.juttla@legalease.co.uk

Posted on

Revolving Doors: Linklaters recruits New York team while Clifford Chance and Akin make key hires

Leading the high-profile moves this week, Linklaters has continued its US expansion with the hire of a four-partner litigation team from New York litigation boutique Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler. 

Adeel Mangi, Muhammad Faridi, Diana Conner and George LoBiondo are set to join the firm as it continues to pursue its strategy of growing in the US by recruiting key laterals. 

Mangi is an experienced trial lawyer with highlights including securing the largest settlement with New York state in history in cases involving the death of a state prison inmate and the largest jury verdict ($2bn) in the history of the Virginia court system. 

The firm laid down a statement of intent in the US January last year when it added an M&A team led by Legal 500 Hall of Fame for $1bn+ M&A deals George Casey.  In October, it hired  a four-partner finance team from A&O Shearman including former global co-head of A&O Shearman’s financial markets practice David Lucking to join its New York office. 

Aedamar Comiskey, Linklaters’ senior partner and chair said in a statement: ‘Growing in the US is a key strategic priority. We’re focusing on top-of-the market lawyers and Adeel, Muhammad, Diana and George are certainly that. Their exceptional trial and commercial litigation expertise will be a terrific addition to our leading global litigation team.’ 

Back in London, Akin has hired Natasha Kaye from Cooley as a tax partner in London. Kaye has spent nine years at Cooley and brings experience advising on a variety of transactions including cross-border and domestic M&A, equity capital markets, reorganisations and restructuring. 

She will be reunited with her former Cooley colleagues who made the move to Akin last July.  London managing partner Justin Stock moved to the firm alongside Stephen Rosen, a Legal 500 Hall of Famer for mid-market private equity transactions who headed Cooley’s London corporate practice, and technology transactions partner David Bresnick. 

Also in the City, Morgan Lewis has hired antitrust partner Paul Johnson and structured finance partner Dasha Sobornova to join its London office from Baker McKenzie and Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, respectively. 

Johnson has joined after 10 years at Bakers’ Brussels office. He spent seven months at the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and 10 years at legacy Berwin Leighton Paisner. He has experience in a range of EU and UK competition matters. 

Sobornova advises on an array of UK-and EU-related securitization and structured finance work, with a focus on collateralized loan obligation (CLO) transactions. She joined after just under three years at Akin Gump and has previously had spells at Mayer Brown, Paul Hastings and Ashurst. 

The pair arrive after a flurry of recent additions with the firm welcoming IP partners Tim Powell and Hiroshi Sheraton, life sciences M&A partner Ted Craig to its London office in recent months. The firm also added a 54-lawyer Kramer Levin team to its Paris office in December. 

Elsewhere in London, Clifford Chance has bolstered its global private capital team with the addition of Emma Ghaffari who joins as a partner in a vertical move from Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom where she held the title of European counsel. 

Ghaffari will reunite with her former colleague, M&A expert Bruce Embley, who moved to CC from Skadden earlier this month. She joins after a year and a half at Skadden, having previously spent time at legacy Allen & Overy and Eversheds Sutherland in Dubai, Freshfields in London and White & Case in Stockholm. 

Clifford Chance’s global private capital team also recently welcomed London fund finance partners Aimee Sharman, and Matt Lilley from Mayer Brown in January, and private equity partner David Schultz and restructuring partner Matthew Hinker from O’Melveny & Myers in New York in October.  

Squire Patton Boggs has welcomed trade finance partners Philip Prowse and Jameel Tarmohamed to its financial services practice in London. The pair have joined from Stephenson Harwood, where they worked for three years, having previously worked together at HFW. 

Jim Barresi, global head of the firm’s financial services group said in a statement: ‘Philip and Jameel add considerable expertise to our international team. Their transactional work for financial institutions, development banks and traders is substantial.’ 

McDermott Will & Emery has hired international arbitration partner Milo Molfa to join its London office from Curtis, Mallet-Prevost, Colt & Mosle. Molfa advises on international commercial arbitrations and investor-state disputes under public international law. He represents corporations and sovereigns in international arbitration proceedings across industries including aviation, automotive and energy. 

This announcement comes in the same week as the departure of the firm’s former London head Hamid Yunis, who is set to join Pillsbury after more than eight and a half years at the Chicago-headquartered firm.  

McDermott also experienced departures in Germany, after Greenberg Traurig raided the firm for a four-lawyer team led by corporate partner Björn Biehl, along with a local partner, and two associates, to open its Munich office next month.

Greenberg’s Munich launch also includes a four-lawyer team from boutique firm Ehlers led by partner Christian Rybak, who will serve as the firm’s chair of healthcare and life sciences in Germany. Stephen Rau, who left McDermott in November, will serve as the office managing partner and chair of Greenberg’s European health care practice. 

Back in London, White & Case has hired tax partner Catherine Hill from Latham & Watkins in a vertical move. Hill has joined after two years as a tax associate at Latham. Prior to that, she spent nine years at Macfarlanes.  

Philadelphia-bred Faegre Drinker has hired financial services regulatory partner Steven Francis from Addleshaw Goddard. 

Francis has become the firm’s 13th London partner, according to its website. He has joined after six years at Addleshaw Goddard and was previously associate partner at EY and a partner at Baker McKenzie and RPC.  He regularly represents clients before the FCA and the Bank of England’s Prudential Regulation Authority. 

DAC Beachcroft has tapped Clyde & Co for London aviation partner Maria Cetta. She has made the move after 25 years at Clyde & Co during which time she gained experience in handling major aviation losses, most recently advising on the Ukrainian International Airlines loss in January 2020. 

In Paris, BCLP has hired a three-lawyer financial regulation and asset management team from Lacourte Raquin Tatar led by partner Damien Luqué.  Luqué has experience in advising clients on investment vehicle structures. 

Over in Ireland, Bird & Bird has hired employment partner Susan Battye as head of its Ireland employment practice. Before joining Bird & Bird, Battye founded and led the employment team at Walkers in Ireland, working there for just under six years. 

Finally, in Washington DC, Kemal Hawa has joined Kirkland & Ellis as a partner in the corporate practice group with a focus on digital infrastructure. He has joined after spending 12 years as a partner at Greenberg Traurig and was also a partner at Mintz Levin. 

tom.cox@legalease.co.uk