Rowe & Maw recruits Garretts' banking head

Rowe & Maw has boosted its financial services team by hiring Garretts' head of banking.

Peter Richards-Carpenter is the second Garretts partner - after EC and trade law specialist Philip Ruttley - to join the firm in the past month.

Rowe & Maw's hiring spree - the firm is also taking on corporate partner Nicola Squire from Hong Kong firm Deacons Graham & James - comes two months after a team of partners, led by Paul Maher, had planned to join Clifford Chance. However, with the exception of Brussels partner Simon Baxter, the team was persuaded to stay and Maher became head of the firm's restructured corporate department.

Richards-Carpenter, who was headhunted by Garretts two years ago from Baker & McKenzie, is currently advising the Financial Services Authority on its new regulatory regime.

He said: "When I went to Garretts, the firm was very new, very young and very ambitious,".

However, the events of the past year - the collapsed merger talks with Wilde Sapte and changes in management - left the firm "chastened".

On his move to Rowe & Maw, Richards-Carpenter said he was attracted to the firm's strength in pensions, insurance and litigation.

A spokeswoman for Garretts refused to comment on Richards-Carpenter's departure from the firm.