Moves roundup: 16 February 2009
MOVE OF THE WEEK
DWF has recruited new corporate partner Peter Allen from Barlow Lyde & Gilbert, where he was an equity partner. He will be based in Manchester. Allen lives in Hale, Altrincham, and enjoys golf, football and music. Major transactions he has worked on include First Milk’s £1bn merger with Milk Link and Trellelborg’s acquisition of a Smiths Group subsidiary for £500m.
UK LONDON
• Walkers has hired Linda Martin from Maples and Calder as a partner and head of finance and corporate for London and the Middle East. Chinyin Lim also joins as an associate from Linklaters.
• US firm Dechert has selected London-based corporate partner Douglas Getter as a member of the firm’s global policy committee.
• Irish firm Arthur Cox has appointed finance partner Kathleen Garrett as head of its London office. Garrett takes over from Mark Saunders, who shifts his focus towards Dublin.
South
• Kent-based Thomson Snell & Passmore has hired associates Joanne Wright in property and Joel Kelly in corporate. They join from Nabarro and ASB Law respectively.
• Tunbridge Wells firm Buss Murton has taken on private client associate Justin Forster, who returns after a stint at Vincent Sykes.
MIDLANDS
• Challinors has promoted Vicky Thomas to associate in its residential property team.
NORTH
• Corporate finance partner Duncan Reid has moved from Ward Hadaway to Watson Burton, where he will head the private equity practice.
• Newcastle firm Sintons has promoted Anthony Evans to partner in the firm’s company and commercial department.
• Hill Dickinson has hired Michael Kenyon, former managing partner at Cooper Kenyon Burrows, as a consultant in its Manchester regulatory team. He joins with former Cooper Kenyon regulatory associates Simon Ellis and Anna Stephenson.
• Optima Legal has appointed Mel Clark as manager of its Newcastle office. He was previously head of the Bradford office. Peter Armstrong, former chief executive at McKeags, which merged with Optima two years ago, has been confirmed as the firm’s non-executive chairman.
• Tax and trust partner Viv Wild has joined Yorkshire firm Schofield Sweeney from Armitage Sykes in Huddersfield.
SCOTLAND
• Harper Macleod has hired corporate partner David Kaye from Bell & Scott. Real estate lawyer Ross Fielding has also been promoted to associate at the firm.
EUROPE
• Belgian firm Liedekerke has recruited insurance partner Cecile Coune from an in-house role at Axa Art Versicherung.
• McDermott Will & Emery Studio Legale Associato has appointed Massimiliano Russo as counsel to set up a health law practice in Rome. He leaves Studio Legale Russo.
• Mayer Brown has recruited former Denton Wilde Sapte assistant Anoly Saypharath to its PPP practice in Paris.
US
• Foley & Lardner has hired the former director of the US Patent and Trademark Office Jon Dudas, who joins as an IP partner in Washington DC.
• Alexander Bono has joined Duane Morris’s Philadelphia office as a trial practice partner, having left Commerce Bancorp, where he was general counsel.
• Dechert has recruited Eric Brunstad as a partner in its bankruptcy and litigation practice groups, based in the Hartford office. He was most recently a partner at Bingham McCutchen.
• James Alford has joined Curtis Mallet-Prevost Colt & Mosle as a partner in Washington DC. He arrives from McKenna Long & Aldridge.
• Edwards Angell Palmer & Dodge has taken on a three-lawyer litigation team from collapsed firm Thatcher Proffitt & Wood. The team comprises partner George Talarico and associates Robert Hornby and Trish Wilson.
• Kenneth Wainstein, who served as homeland security adviser to President George Bush, is joining O’Melveny & Myers as a partner in its
Washington DC office.
• Steptoe & Johnson has hired Guzman Lowrey as a public policy adviser. She was previously director of government and industry relations at mortgage giant Fannie Mae.
OFFSHORE
• Conyers Dill & Pearman has expanded its Cayman Islands practice with three new associates: litigator Stephen Leontsinis joins from Bell Dewar & Hall, corporate lawyer Tania Dons from Russell McVeagh and Preetha Pillai arrives from Conyers’ Singapore office.
IN-HOUSE
• Insurance company DAS Legal Expenses has appointed Dave Massey as head of its legal service department. He was previously claims manager in the claims department. Vicky Reynolds will replace Massey as claims manager.
