Davenport grows via trio of partner captures
West End firm Davenport Lyons has continued its recent expansion by hiring
a trio of partners for its employment, IP and property practices.
Real estate litigator Janice Northover joins from Teacher Stern, where she had been a partner for four years. She specialises in property litigation for commercial investors and managing agents.
IP/IT specialist Michael Evans and employment lawyer Laura Livingstone were associates at US firm Faegre & Benson and Taylor Wessing respectively.
The firm now boasts 44 partners, having taken on dispute resolution partner Adam Glass from Glass Law in July and media lawyer Nigel Davies from K&L Gates in December last year.
The departure of IP/IT lawyer Evans from Faegre is another blow for a firm that has lost five partners this year.
The US firm merged with London outfit Hobson Audley in 2003, but the City office has been decimated by departures this year – the end of a five-year lock-in period.
Evans, a former internal relations ;manager ;at Reuters, ;said ;he ;was attracted to Davenport’s wider offering, adding: “They have a trademark team and a number of my clients are looking for that.”
Evans will be bringing with him clients including software developers and computer games companies.
Employment partner Livingstone specialises in non-contentious ;work, including ;Transfer ;of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations and insolvency advice.
Davenport ;head ;of employment Marie van der Zyl said: “Attracting key team members such as Laura to the firm is an important part of our long-term strategy – not only to expand our client base, but also our sector expertise.”
