Moves roundup: 17 November 2008
Move of the week
Hedge fund specialist Schulte Roth & Zabel has raided McDermott Will & Emery for partner Nick Terras (left), who joins the firm’s London office as a partner in the investment management group. McDermott London managing partner Doron Ezickson said: “Nick’s joining a niche hedge funds firm that’s very well suited to his practice. I understand and support Nick’s decision to move in such a direction and wish him every success there.”
London
UK
• Withers partner Graeme Kleiner has left the firm to join Speechly Bircham as head of contentious trusts in the private client group.
• Taylor Wessing has boosted its banking and finance litigation team in London with the hire of Laurence Lieberman as a partner. Lieberman was formerly a senior associate in DLA Piper’s litigation and regulatory group.
• US firm Debevoise & Plimpton has hired William Godwin, who will join the European litigation practice as international counsel. He was formerly a senior barrister at 4 New Square.
• Margaret Heathcote joined Farrer & Co on 10 November as an associate in the family team, moving from Payne Hicks Beach, where she was an associate.
• Kingsley Napley has announced the arrival of Gerard Cukier as a partner and new head of the dispute resolution team. He joins from Stock Fraser Cukier. Barry Samuels, the head of dispute resolution at Kingsley for over a decade, will continue as a consultant.
• Reed Smith has hired Jacqui Hatfield as a partner in the financial industry group in London. She joins from Herbert Smith.
• Simmons & Simmons has recruited former Herbert Smith head of HR John Lucy as HR director. He replaces Anita Tovell, who retired
in July.
South
• South Coast firm Coffin Mew has promoted four associates to partner: Christian Smith in dispute resolution, Tim Gleeson in commercial, Darren Tibble in employment and Hugh James in social housing.
• Cripps Harries Hall has expanded its family team with the appointment of assistant Sophie Barrett, who has joined the firm from Manches.
• South East firm Adams & Remers has added to its dispute resolution team with the appointment of Albie Passmore, a former equity partner at ASB Law and more recently a partner at Coole & Haddock.
South West
• Trethowans has boosted numbers in its employment team with the arrival of three solicitors from Devon firm Foot Anstey. They are Jon Loney, who joins as a partner, associate Holly Cudbill and solicitor Ian Grimshaw.
• Gloucestershire-based Rickerbys has hired Richard Levinge as head of new business. He was previously director of Rickerbys client Jelf Group. The firm has also taken on two lawyers from Foot Anstey – employment associate Kristine Scott, who returns after a two-year break in the US, and private client associate Phillipa Bruce-Kerr.
Midlands
• Fiona Barnes has joined the Shropshire office of MFG Solicitors as a partner to work in the private client division. She was previously at Shrewsbury firm Hatchers.
North
• Leeds firm Walker Morris has poached Addleshaw Goddard Manchester head of pensions Jo Ratcliffe. She joins the pensions group as a partner.
• Yorkshire law firm Gordons has appointed eight trainee solicitors in Leeds and Bradford. They are Gareth Miles, Amanda Blacker, Louise Tatton, Oliver Turner, Grace Cowling, Mark Jones, Ruth Cockshott and Greg Dixon.
• Leeds law firm Lee & Priestley has promoted assistants Stuart Tansley and Ann Marie Cousins to associate.
• Newcastle firm Hay & Kilner has appointed Alice Clewes as an associate in its wealth management team. She moves to the North East from Bristol-based Burges Salmon.
• Ben Mason and Charley Hemming completed training contracts at Derby law firm Robinsons Solicitors and take up positions as assistant solicitors in the employment law and commercial property departments respectively.
• Assistant solicitor Keith Cundall has joined Irwin Mitchell’s Manchester personal injury team from Express Solicitors in South Manchester.
Scotland
• DLA Piper’s Edinburgh office has recruited Duncan Mawby to take up the role of legal director in the insurance team. Mawby joins DLA Piper from Shepherd and Wedderburn, where he was an associate.
• MacRoberts has appointed three new partners. They are Julie Hamilton in dispute resolution, Neil Kennedy in corporate and Graham Mitchell in employment.
Bar/Bench
• Richard Foster CBE has been appointed chair of the Criminal Cases Review Commission. He was chief executive (director general) of the Crown Prosecution Service from 2001 to 2007 and is a trustee of the Refugee Council.
Europe
• DLA Piper has hired Agnieszka Lechman-Filipiak as a partner to head its employment practice in Poland. She joins from Linklaters.
• Michael Meissner is to join Dechert’s Munich office in January 2009 as a partner in the acquisition finance practice. Prior to joining Dechert he was a partner at German law firm Raupach & Wollert-Elmendorff.
• DLA Piper is expanding its Frankfurt banking regulations practice with the appointment of partner Dr Mathias Hanten, who joins from
SJ Berwin. The firm has also appointed Igor Venediktov as head of its Moscow tax practice. He joins from development company Snegiri Group (formerly ST Group), where he was chief financial officer.
• Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has promoted 11 to the post of counsel. They are Grazia Bonante (Rome) and Ralph Kogge (Munich) in corporate; Martin Hamer (Berlin) in dispute resolution; Laurence Harvey Wood (Paris) and Nils Schramm (Hamburg) in employment, pensions and benefits; Matthew Cox (London), Stefano Giura (Milan) and Klaus Lackhoff (Frankfurt) in finance; Thomas Becker (Cologne) and Sergio Miralles (Spain) in IP/IT; and Adolfo Zunzunegui (Madrid) in tax.
Asia and Middle East
• Kirkland & Ellis has recruited former Jun He Law Offices partner Xiaoyang Li, who will join as a partner in the Hong Kong office. He specialises in private equity and M&A.
US
• Dechert has expanded its Hong Kong office with the addition of corporate partners Michael Hickman and Liang Tsui, who join from Fried Frank Harris Shriver & Jacobson, and litigation partner David Chu, a former partner at Heller Ehrman.
• New York-based Schwartz has hired Gil Michel-Garcia as a partner in the emerging markets, private equity, corporate and financial transactions practice. He was previously an associate at Stikeman Elliott.
In-house
• James Lightbourne, former legal head of the private client and asset management department at Deutsche Bank, has moved to hedge fund CQS, where he will be its first global general counsel.
• The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has appointed competition lawyer Nerilee Telford as a director for markets and projects within its goods division. Prior to joining the OFT she was a senior associate at Clifford Chance.
