Dentons has hired Taylor Wessing head of telecoms Tracey Sheehan to boost its technology media and telecoms (TMT) team in London.

Sheehan was a partner at Taylor Wessing since 2011, when she joined from legacy Squire Sanders Hammonds as part of an IP boost alongside legacy SJ Berwin partner Chris Thornham. 

Sheehan’s hire brings Dentons’ London-based TMT headcount to over 40. 

Taylor Wessing has yet to announce her replacement. As head of telecoms she reported to TMT head Graham Hann.

The new appointment is part of Dentons’ current expansion strategy. Last week, The Lawyer reported exclusively that Matthew Arnold & Baldwin’s banking and finance practice could break off from the rest of the firm, with nine partners understood to be moving to Dentons’ London office. 

Dentons’ merger with Dacheng, which will be finalised next year, has made it largest law firm in the world by headcount. Its merger with McKenna Long & Aldridge three months later put headcount at 6,600 lawyers worldwide with more than 1,100 of them based in the US.