Bircham Dyson Bell has dipped into the magic circle to boost its corporate team.

The ambitious Westminster firm has recruited Clifford Chance corporate senior associate Bruce Jones as a partner.

Birchams head of corporate Paul Voller said: “The hire’s part of our strategy to significantly develop our presence in the corporate finance market. The corporate group has doubled turnover in the past five years and wants to achieve similar growth in the next five.”

Jones’s hire increases corporate group’s lawyer count to nine, including three partners. Voller said this will increase to 12 lawyers by September 2007.

Birchams’ 2005-06 turnover hit £30.1m, a 22 per cent increase on 2004-05’s £24.7m. Profit per equity partner, meanwhile, rose by 35 per cent to £310,000 from £229,000 in 2004-05.