Shearmans loses lawyer to Lovells

Lovell White Durrant is bolstering its international tax practice by taking on a senior lawyer from Shearman & Sterling's New York office.

Joseph Gruber joins Lovells' New York office, specialising in M&A and capital markets. After five years at Shearmans he joins Lovells to head up its tax department.

Gruber is the first lawyer in the firm's New York office with US tax law qualifications.

Philip Gershuny, head of international tax at Lovells, says Gruber's appointment is part of a drive to develop the firm's tax practice.

He says: "We want to build up teams which are already expert in domestic tax and then we will try and create channels of communications to build into a team to work on cross-border tax."

Gershuny is non-committal over any plans to make Gruber a partner in the four-partner office, but adds: "If all goes well we will need to have people to assist him."