Watson Farley taps BLP for asset finance duo
Watson Farley & Williams has hired two asset finance lawyers from Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP) in a bid to boost its core practice.
Nicola Davies
Nicola Davies, who has been a partner at BLP since 1987 and has experience advising on shipping, aviation, energy, project finance and cross-border leasing transactions, and Samantha Yardley, an associate director at BLP who acts for lessors, brokers and lessees on all types of financing structures, are expected to join Watson Farley later this month.
Both join the firm as partners in the firm’s London asset finance department. For Yardley the move is a return to Watson Farley as she worked at the firm post-qualification.
Firm-wide, Watson Farley has more that 120 lawyers across 11 offices in its asset finance group. David Osborne heads the firm’s London practice.
BLP has seen some movement across its various finance departments this year. In May the firm lost a five-partner finance team to Simmons & Simmons (26 May 2011).
In April BLP hired a corporate finance partner from Charles Russell and former Paul Hastings asset finance head Keith Wilson (14 April 2011).
