Davis Polk appoints Shearmans partner

Top New York firm Davis Polk & Wardwell is laterally hiring a partner from Shearman & Sterling to boost its Californian office.

Capital markets lawyer Alan Deneberg has investment banking clients, including Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and Credit Suisse First Boston, and a strong corporate client base.

He is following Bill Kelly to the firm's Menlo Park office who went there from high-tech company Silicon Graphics and had previously worked with Deneberg at Shearmans.

The firm seldom hires laterally, but office managing partner Daniel Kelly says it has made an exception in this case because the Californian market is so specialist.

He says: "Deneberg adds a very strong capital markets capability - he's done a lot of work for investment banks and has some nice relationships with the banks out here which complement our relationships with some of the banks on the East Coast."

He says the three investment banks with which Deneberg has the strongest contacts are the ones that are doing most of the work in the West Coast market.

"Alan brings two things - he means we can do more of the work for the investment banks and for companies that have capital markets transactions, and he has Asian knowledge," Kelly adds.

"One of the things that differentiates us in this market is our ability to do work in Europe and Asia. Alan will help us a lot with Asian clients."

Davis Polk's Menlo Park office acts mainly for venture capitalists, investment banks and major technology companies in the US, Asia and Europe. It has 22 lawyers and expects to have 30-40 next year.