‘s New York office has poached a senior associate from Milbank Tweed Hadley & McCloy to co-head its asset finance group.
The news of Zarrar Sehgal’s hire comes days after the office announced it was taking on King & Spalding joint head of M&A John Graham (www. thelawyer.com, 18 September).
The firm’s managing partner for the Americas Craig Medwick told The Lawyer: “If we can create opportunities for people we want to become partner, then we’re happy to do that.”
In July the office snapped up senior counsel Brynn Peltz from Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, and as with Sehgal it made her a partner.
Sehgal has experience on aircraft transactions, which squares with Clifford Chance’s recent hire of John Howitt from Paul Hastings Janofsky & Walker to head its aircraft finance practice.
Medwick said: “Our existing clients are telling us there’s more work out there for us if we have more depth. We’re happy we’re now a desirable place for lateral hires.”
The recent hires are the first evidence of Clifford Chance’s US operation aligning with the firm’s global strategy after the end of the upheaval that followed the Rogers & Wells merger and the mass Brobeck Phleger & Harrison hire.
