Dechert is ramping up its financial services offering in the UK by moving its first US partner into the London unit.
Karen Anderberg has relocated from Dechert’s Washington DC office on a long-term basis to add to the group’s US regulatory expertise. The London financial services team already has one senior and one junior US-qualified associate and plans further expansion.
The move is part of Dechert’s drive to globalise the practice, which operates out of Luxembourg, Paris and Frankfurt, as well as London and the US.
Anderberg spent 10 months in the London office as an associate in 1998. “There are clients I’ve kept up relationships with. It will be easier to work with them in the same time zone,” she said.
Financial services partner Stuart Martin said: “What we want to do is grow our ability and service to clients; and where we believe it would be appropriate, we’ll have US partners in London.”
In a separate move, Dechert has secured approval from the Luxembourg bar to drop the name of the local firm it merged with in 2001. Instead of ‘Brucher & Seimetz in association with Dechert’, it will be known simply as Dechert Luxembourg.
Office managing partner Jean Brucher said: “Two years down the line the Dechert name is now well established in Luxembourg and the rules have been relaxed.”