BLG reels as non-contentious team splinters

Barlow Lyde & Gilbert (BLG) has been rocked by the loss of its superstar head of commercial and technology Kit Burden to DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary.

Burden's defection follows hard on the heels of the departures of former corporate chief John Longdon and former banking head Graham Wedlake to the London arm of Chicago's Winston & Strawn.

BLG senior partner Rich-ard Dedman said: "There's no question of us not being committed to our non-contentious practice. I can't escape from the fact that we're two-thirds litigation, but we want to offer our clients a range of services."

When Longdon quit, BLG split its corporate practice into corporate, commercial and technology and employment, and discarded banking. Technology partner Simon Shooter takes over as the head of commercial and technology.

Burden has been instrumental in building BLG's technology practice, working with the likes of PricewaterhouseCoopers, UBS and Tesco. He becomes DLA Piper's 26th IT and telecoms (IT&T) partner, bolstering the private sector IT practice, which has lagged behind the high profile of Richard Bonnar's spectacular public sector practice.

DLA Piper head of IT&T Simon Levine said: "Kit will... help us roll out the global strategy across IT&T."

BLG technology partner Chris Holder commented: "I think he's overreacted slightly to being dropped from the football team."