Biddle loses partner to US firm

West Coast US firm Paul Hastings Janofsky & Walker is taking a partner from City firm Biddle, boosting its London office to 12 lawyers.

Dual qualified banking and insolvency lawyer Karol Denniston led Biddle's US desk.

She joins the US firm as of counsel, the equivalent of a salaried partner, and will focus on high yield debt, debt trading and international reorganisations.

She says she is making the move to the US to do more focused work.

"At Biddle it was a much more diverse corporate practice and now I can concentrate more on the debt restructuring and capital markets transactions which I enjoy."

Her clients are mainly privately held companies and she says many of them are moving with her to the new firm. She refuses to name them.

Managing partner of Paul Hastings' London office Joel Simon says: "We now have one of the best qualified and experienced teams of international reorganisation lawyers in the City, further strengthening our high yield debt, structured finance and M&A practice.

"With Karol's addition we can expand services to our local clients who require assistance in connection with US bankruptcy proceedings."

Paul Hastings has 650 lawyers around the globe and is based in Los Angeles.

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