A&O takes two partners from Freshfields in New York

Kent Rowey, who was head of Freshfields’ Americas energy and infrastructure practice, and Dolly Mirchandani, who was a partner in the firm’s global energy and infrastructure group and also co-led the pro bono practice, will both join A&O’s New York office as partners.

Rowey acts for investors, credit providers, public sector entities, contractors and in infrastructure and natural resources deals. Mirchandani advises lenders, public authorities and developers on energy and infrastructure deals and is an expert on public-private partnerships and concession arrangements.

The hires boost the number of lawyers in A&O’s US energy and infrastructure team – which has been focused on advising the US and multilateral credit agencies - to 30, with the firm saying it expects further growth of around 30-40 per cent by the end of the year.

In a statement, A&O’s US managing partner Kevin O’Shea, said: “Opportunities like this don’t come around very often. The combination of our strategic focus on domestic energy and infrastructure and Kent and Dolly’s reputation in this area makes for a very compelling proposition. The prospects for our energy and infrastructure practice are incredibly exciting.”

A&O’s global infrastructure co-head David Lee added: “We believe that the need to harness private capital to develop energy and infrastructure assets will continue to be a significant strand to our business going forward – governments, whether federal, state, county or city will, we think, be focused much more than ever before on the ‘how’ rather than just the ‘how much’ of capital expenditure question.”