Winston & Strawn has hired Pinsent Masons partner Paul Amiss and Gide Loyrette Nouel finance partner Rebecca Finn to join its London team in a bid to boost its corporate and finance practice.

The pair will join the firm alongside Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman of counsel Jason Parker.

Amiss had been at Pinsent Masons since 2004, and was made up to partner in the firm’s corporate group in 2011, while Finn led Gide’s finance practice from Hong Kong.

Finn’s clients include borrowers, sponsors, conventional financial institutions as well as multilateral financing institutions including the International Finance Corporation. 

The hires follow speculation this summer that Winston & Strawn is shifting its focus to transactional matters when making lateral hires globally and is moving away from its traditional heavy emphasis on litigation.

This week the firm announced a series of leadership appointments in its London, Chicago and Shanghai offices. Brussels managing partner Peter Crowther replaced Michael Madden as head of the London office, partner Linda Coberly replaced Tom Frederick as managing partner of Chicago and partner Brinton Scott replaced Bertrand Théaud as managing partner of Shanghai. 

Last May the firm hired a team of corporate lawyers from DLA Piper’s Hong Kong office led by former DLA Asia corporate head Mabel Liu.

Winston & Strawn has lost a number of litigators in London this year, including a four-strong IP litigation team that left to join Olswang in February. Partner Richard Price joined the media firm as head of IP arbitration with fellow partner Gareth Morgan and two associates.

The firm’s Asia litigation chair left to join Morrison & Foerster in July along with three associates.

The US firm opened in the Middle East in March with the hire of eight Pillsbury partners from the US and a handful more following in London and the Middle East.

The mass lateral hire came less than a week after Winston & Strawn poached Pillsbury structured products practice head Jeffrey Stern.

Earlier this month it emerged merger talks between Chadbourne & Parke and Pillsbury had collapsed following months of speculation.