Proskauer bolsters London office ahead of launch

Proskauer Rose has strengthened its fledgling London presence with the addition of O'Melveny & Myers of counsel Timothy Drake.

Drake, who specialises in M&A, private equity work and AIM flotations, has joined the firm as senior counsel and will work alongside his former O'Melveny colleague Matthew Hudson.

As reported on www.thelawyer.com (6 September), former O'Melveny private equity chairman Hudson has joined Proskauer to build the firm's London presence, with the Mayfair office due to launch as soon as Solicitors Regulation Authority approval is received.

The main focus for the office will be private equity and hedge fund work, an area the firm is keen to ramp up in other jurisdictions. For example, Proskauer recently boosted its private equity capabilities in Paris via a merger with local boutique SGDM (www.thelawyer.com, 4 September). Under the terms of the merger, private equity partners Daniel Schmidt, who founded SGDM, and Olivier Dumas moved across to Proskauer, accompanied by associates Mireille Mull-Jochem, Arielle Halim and Estelle Piazza.

Drake's experience includes a variety of corporate, insolvency and banking work, and he acted for the liquidators of BCCI. Prior to joining O'Melveny he spent two years in Lovells' New York office.