Lovells ramps up German finance with double hire for Frankfurt

Former Dresdner Bank director and senior counsel Olaf Grabowski will join as a banking partner, specialising in securitisation.

Dresdner is already a client of Lovells for German and UK banking and capital markets work, but the addition of Grabowski will further strengthen those ties.

Lovells' German banking practice is aiming to gain more work from Deutsche Bank, Dresdner, WestLB, HypoVer-einsbank and other European banks such as BNP Paribas, which invests heavily in Germany.

The other lateral hire Jens Rinze, a senior associate at Hengeler Mueller, will become a partner in the equity capital markets practice. The additions bring the number of partners in Lovells' German finance department up to 11.

The new recruits join a tough market: the investment banks have made deep cuts in Germany and some have relocated their German desks to London; but the firm's head of banking Andrew Gamble said the cuts were driven by a quieter M&A market which had not affected banking work.