Trial lawyers firm Kobre & Kim has hired Serle Court silk James Corbett QC for its nascent City office.
Corbett’s hire gives the firm, which opened in London last summer, an English law capability for the first time. He will work alongside US-qualified partner Michael Kim, who divides his time between London and New York, and partner Robert Henoch. The firm plans to have a total of five English-qualified lawyers working in the City by the autum.
Corbett, who took silk in 1999, said of his move:
“I’d been at the bar a long time. Not only had I done pretty much everything I wanted to, but most of it I’d done twice. Twice is enough.”
Corbett, whose international arbitration practice sees him ply his trade in the Far East, the Caribbean and Latin America, will spend some of his time in the firm’s Hong Kong office, which launches later this year.
Corbett has joined the firm as a partner. Under changes to the Bar Council’s Code of Conduct he will not have to qualify as a solicitor, unlike the former attorney general Lord Goldsmith QC, who became a solicitor in 2008 in order to join the equity partnership at Debevoise & Plimpton.
