Herbies parachutes City partner into Moscow

Herbert Smith has underlined its commitment to its Russian office by transferring London finance partner Alexander Currie to Moscow.

This brings the number of partners in Moscow to six following the recent hires of corporate/M&A lawyer Alexei Roudiak and tax specialist Oleg Konnov from Salans (The Lawyer, 30 April).

Currie, who joined Herbert Smith from Linklaters in 2005, has 12 years’ finance experience with a focus on projects, acquisitions, property, restructurings and corporate finance transactions.

He has worked on a number of energy and infrastructure such as advising on the project financing of an electricity transmission project between South Africa, Swaziland and Mozambique.

Currie also has experience of Russian deals, having acted for Chinese state oil company Sinopec on the financing aspects of its joint venture with Rosneft in respect of Sakhalin III.

While Herbert Smith is making a particular push in Russia at the moment, with senior partner David Gold keen for the firm to offer all-round corporate advice in the region, Currie’s transfer coincides with John Balsdon’s move back to London after 11 years in Moscow.