LeBoeufs' global market presence attracts Goddards' corporate and securities partner

Theodore Goddard corporate and securities law partner Charles Ashton has moved to the London office of the US firm LeBoeuf Lamb Greene & MacRae.

Ashton, who had been working at Theodore Goddard for 11 years, is one of the latest of a string of UK lawyers to be headhunted by US practices in London.

LeBouefs London managing partner James Johnson said: "Charles comes from a very broad corporate and companies finance background. "I think the international aspects of our firm attracted him. We have a wide range of international commercial and securities work. We have offices in Moscow and now Almaty [Kazakstan] which give us access to a range of clients into Far Eastern Europe."

Ashton had worked on several Central European deals for Theodore Goddard, but the firm's joint venture in Central Europe with US practice Dewey Ballantine came to an end last year when Deweys decided to build its own English practice.

Ashton claimed money had not been a consideration in his decision to move to LeBoeufs: "It wasn't something that influenced me," he said. "If you've been somewhere for 11 years, you don't throw it all in just for a short-term gain."