Revolving Doors: DAC Beachcroft, RPC, K&L Gates and Reed Smith boost London offering with lateral hires

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London has been the focus of a series of hires for top national, City and US firms including DAC Beachcroft, RPC, K&L Gates and Reed Smith, as Dechert has also boosted its Moscow offering with a hire of a partner from Hogan Lovells.

Adrian Williams joins DAC Beachcroft’s corporate insurance team from reinsurance giant Swiss Re, where he was general counsel for Europe, Middle East and Africa, and was based in Zurich. The firm has also bolstered its real estate team in London with the hire of Nathan East from Hempsons. East specialises in advising medical professionals, care providers and the NHS. Continue reading “Revolving Doors: DAC Beachcroft, RPC, K&L Gates and Reed Smith boost London offering with lateral hires”

Risky business: BAE’s compliance head to direct risk at Rolls Royce as Lord Gold’s monitor role comes to an end

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BAE Systems compliance and regulation chief counsel Mark Serfozo has moved to Rolls-Royce as director of risk after nearly 20 years at the defence, security and aerospace giant in a move said by BAE’s high profile general counsel Philip Bramwell to be ‘a good career move’.

Serfozo was appointed to head compliance in 2007 as part of Bramwell’s move to beef up that function shortly after his arrival at BAE and during the height of long running investigations by the Serious Fraud Office into the al-Yamamah arms deal.Since then, the compliance function at BAE has quadrupled to around 100 staff and the legal team doubled to 250, while the company’s litigation costs have dropped by 80%. Continue reading “Risky business: BAE’s compliance head to direct risk at Rolls Royce as Lord Gold’s monitor role comes to an end”

India calling: Freshfields and Linklaters make key India hires as Amarchand opens up its partnership

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The periodic excitement over the liberalisation of the Indian legal market may currently be reduced to background chatter but the past fews days have been a reminder that the top UK firms continue to position themselves for India work while leading local firms are themselves bulking up and adopting far more expansive strategies.

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has appointed Linklaters’ Arun Balasubramanian to co-head the firm’s India group out of Singapore, working alongside Pratap Amin, chairman of Freshfields’ India group. Continue reading “India calling: Freshfields and Linklaters make key India hires as Amarchand opens up its partnership”

Revolving Doors: HSF and SJ Berwin hire finance management team as Covington and Cleary bring in litigation partners

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Herbert Smith Freehills (HSF) has filled its two most senior finance slots with the hire of Kirkland and Ellis finance chief Nick Willmott as its new chief financial officer (CFO) and Paul Roberts from BDO as its finance director.

Wilmott, who will join HSF in September, will be responsible for overseeing integration at the recently merged firm from the perspective of the global business finance function. He has been at Chicago-based Kirkland since 2004, before which he held senior finance positions at Pepsi and real estate services firm Jones Lang LaSalle, where much of his work was focused on merger integration. Continue reading “Revolving Doors: HSF and SJ Berwin hire finance management team as Covington and Cleary bring in litigation partners”

SJ Berwin creates new COO role with hire of McKinsey’s Baumgartner

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Top 25 City firm SJ Berwin has announced the hire of Rick Baumgartner as the firm’s first-ever chief operating officer (COO). Baumgartner will join on September 9 from leading management consultancy group McKinsey & Company.

Baumgartner has over ten years’ experience with McKinsey, prior to which he worked at the Australian stock exchange and has held senior roles at accountancy giants Ernst & Young and Deloitte. Continue reading “SJ Berwin creates new COO role with hire of McKinsey’s Baumgartner”

White & Case continues capital markets drive as Milan boasts full DCM suite

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White & Case has made no secret of its strategic objective to boost its global capital markets capability and last week saw a debt capital markets (DCM) team join in Milan from Magic Circle rival Allen & Overy (A&O).

A&O’s DCM and regulatory partner Paola Leocani (pictured) joins the Milan office alongside counsel Elena Radicella Chiaramonte, two senior associates, an associate and two trainees.

Rated by Legal 500 as third-tier for ECM and DCM in Italy, White & Case claims that it is now one of the only firms in the region with a full spectrum of capital markets and regulatory services across products, at a time when Italy has seen a decrease in bank lending and a corresponding growth in DCM. Continue reading “White & Case continues capital markets drive as Milan boasts full DCM suite”

Mills & Reeve adds DLA’s defendant insurance team

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DLA completes withdrawal as CMS adds RPC head

Mills & Reeve and CMS Cameron McKenna boosted their offerings at opposite ends of the insurance spectrum in June, taking staff from the Birmingham office of DLA Piper and the City office of RPC respectively.

Top-50 UK firm Mills & Reeve acquired a nine-strong defendant insurance practice from DLA, marking the conclusion of DLA’s withdrawal from the lower margin area of law, as first announced last year. Continue reading “Mills & Reeve adds DLA’s defendant insurance team”

A&O finance veteran joins Co-op

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Alistair Asher takes on GC role as firm acts on major bank rescue

Securing a major deal and having one of your partners take a senior role with the same client is a nice trick to pull off but Allen & Overy (A&O) appeared to have managed that last month after securing a lead role on the Co-op’s rescue plan and ‘donating’ a veteran partner to the lender’s management team.

On 18 June, A&O confirmed that global financial institutions head Alistair Asher is leaving to join the Co-operative Bank as its new general counsel.

Asher will advise on the restructuring of the mutually owned lender and help speed up its management overhaul under its new chief executive Euan Sutherland. Asher retired on 1 July after 34 years with the Magic Circle firm and took on the new role immediately. The veteran partner had previously advised the Co-op on its 2009 merger with Britannia Building Society.

Continue reading “A&O finance veteran joins Co-op”

Revolving Doors: Squire Sanders, Pinsent Masons and Bird & Bird boost corporate and finance capability

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Squire Sanders has today announced the hire of US Dorsey & Whitney City-based corporate finance partner Matthew Doughty in a week that has also seen Pinsent Masons take on a new head of banking in Birmingham and Bird & Bird boost its finance capability in Frankfurt.

Doughty, who specializes in equity capital markets (ECM) with experience of the New York, Hong Kong, Amsterdam, Frankfurt and London Stock Exchanges, including AIM, was formerly a partner at Addleshaw Goddard’s City office, from where he joined Squire Sanders in June 2009. Continue reading “Revolving Doors: Squire Sanders, Pinsent Masons and Bird & Bird boost corporate and finance capability”

Revolving Doors: Field Fisher hires Taylor Wessing’s David Kent as Irwin Mitchell and TLT make key hires

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Taylor Wessing’s long reputed head of inward investment David Kent is to join Field Fisher Waterhouse (FFW) in a week that has also seen Irwin Mitchell and TLT make strategic partner hires.

Kent is a corporate partner specialising in advising emerging growth and listed companies from the US, Canada and Europe on structuring, establishing and operating businesses in the UK and Europe, mergers and acquisitions and joint ventures, technology transfers, distribution and licensing agreements. Continue reading “Revolving Doors: Field Fisher hires Taylor Wessing’s David Kent as Irwin Mitchell and TLT make key hires”