Orrick London ups restructuring capability with raid on Hunton

The City office of Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe is the latest firm to ramp up its restructuring capabilities with the hire of Mark Fennessy from Hunton & Williams.

Fennessy, who leaves Hunton after just two years at the firm he joined from Clyde & Co, told The Lawyer: "I think Orrick will be a bigger platform for me. It has a strong European presence with good offices in France and Italy, and soon in Germany. That platform is particularly good for pan-European restructurings."

Over the past nine months Fennessy has been advising Hunton client Bank of America and its subsidiary Columbia Management on the restructurings of Cheyne Finance, Rhinebridge and Whistlejacket Capital.

Orrick London managing partner Martin Bartlam said: "In the current economic climate there will be an increasing need for people with these type of skills."

Hunton's London office has recently witnessed the retirement of litigation partners John Miles and Marie Kidwell and corporate partner Peter Kavanagh. It also lost banking partners Swati Patel to Deutsche Bank and Jonathan Marsh to Berwin Leighton Paisner.

Hunton managing partner Martin Thomas said: "Those things are easy to absorb when you have 200 lawyers; they're harder when you have 40. It's affected morale and it took time to get replacements and get things back on track."