Norton Rose in Moscow full-service vow

Norton Rose has pledged to turn its Moscow office into a full-service offering within 18 months and to double its headcount to 60 lawyers in the process.

Andrei ;Yakovlev, ;a ­partner in Moscow who relocated from London in April, said Norton Rose ­currently has four partners in the region and plans to ramp this number up to at least seven.

He added: “Along with the seven or eight partners, we’d ;need ;around ;50 ­associates. We’re looking at around 20-25 per cent of the additional lawyers to [come] through transfers and the rest we’re looking to recruit from the domestic market.

“Banking, finance and M&A are core areas in Moscow, but we want to expand more into property and real estate, as well as develop arbitration in the region.”