Mayer Brown hires White & Case litigation heavyweight for City office

Graham, who represented former Morgan Crucible CEO Ian Norris against the US Government’s attempts to extradite him (24 February 2012), will join Mayer Brown’s partnership on Monday (21 January) under London head of litigation David Allen.

As well as being appointed to the partnership in the firm’s litigation department, Graham will be one of a handful of lawyers to sit on the firm’s litigation board. The board sets the strategy for the firm’s London’s litigation arm, though both Allen and Graham told The Lawyer that no change in strategy is on the agenda following the appointment.

The US firm approached Graham a number of months ago after setting out to find a “senior litigator with heavy-hitting litigation and financial services experience”.

Graham, who was at White & Case for over 10 years and has previously worked for the FSA, is also understood to have worked beside Allen and a number of other partners in Mayer Brown’s City commercial disputes team in the past.

No further hires are known to have come from the appointment, though a number of Graham’s clients in the TMT and oil and gas sectors are expected to move across. Neither Graham or Allen commented on this.

“Part of our objective when we were redoing our business planning is to keep building out the financial disputes part of the [litigation] practice, where we’ve been very busy,” said Allen. “Alistair’s contacts and experience fits comfortably with, but is not confined to, that. He has a strong track record, both in the financial sector and corporate sector.”