Linklaters poaches asset finance team in New York

Linklaters has pulled off a multi-million dollar coup by recruiting a highly successful three-partner US asset finance team from White & Case's New York office.

The new partners - Marianne Rosenberg, J Truman Bidwell, former co-heads of White & Case's New York-based equipment and facility finance group, and Robert Smith, a leveraged lease and project finance tax partner - will form the core of a new asset finance practice at Linklaters' New York office.

Kevin Hall, a senior associate, who worked closely with Rosenberg at White & Case, has also been recruited.

Rosenberg said the reason for the move was Linklaters' commitment to the development of asset finance - a commitment she said was lacking at White & Case.

She added that she expected the practice, which she will head, to grow quickly, with more lawyers recruited from US firms and English lawyers transferred from Linklaters' London office.

David Barnard, head of Linklaters' US law practice, said of the partners: "They are three outstanding individuals and we are thrilled to have them on board."

A White & Case spokeswoman said that Rosenberg had generated a good amount of business for the firm, but that the New York leasing finance practice had enough lawyers to continue to be strong.

However, the split did not appear entirely amicable.

According to Rosenberg, she and her two colleagues resigned from White & Case at 10.30am on Friday, 8 May, and were installed in Linklaters' office by 12.30pm.

While it is not unusual in the US for lawyers leaving firms to do so after two or three days, Rosenberg said that she was told to vacate the office "immediately" and was then escorted out of the building by a member of the management committee.