Clifford Chance has moved to strengthen its German offering with the appointment of Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer’s global co-head of energy and natural resources, Anselm Raddatz.

Raddatz will join Clifford Chance’s Düsseldorf office and will co-head the firm’s German corporate group alongside Thomas Krecek. He will also be a member of the firm’s global corporate leadership group.

He is the first hire for the firm in Germany for several years and the appointment follows Clifford Chance’s decision to review its German offering last year.

Since then a number of high-profile partners have quit Clifford Chance for other firms, including most recently banking and capital markets head Alexandra Hagelüken. She was the third partner to join Latham & Watkins, following private equity head Olivier Felsenstein and corporate partner Burc Hesse who moved to the US firm in February.

The firm has also lost former German corporate head Arndt Stengel to Milbank Tweed Hadley & McCloy’s Frankfurt office, energy partners Peter Rosin and Thomas Burmeister to White & Case, capital markets partner Wolfgang Richter for CMS Hasche Sigle, and Munich IP head Marc Holtorf to Pinsent Masons.

Raddatz has advised clients including E.ON on a range of corporate deals in the energy sector.

Clifford Chance’s German private equity head Christopher Kellett said Raddatz would play an important role in expanding the firm’s position in a period when the firm’s private equity client base was “evolving rapidly”.