Milbank Tweed Hadley & McCloy has launched a commercial litigation practice in London, hiring DLA Piper partner Julian Stait to work on technology disputes.
Stait, a former head of technology, media and communications (TMC) at DLA Piper, will work in Milbank’s two-partner IT and outsourcing team.
Milbank now has 13 partners in London under European managing partner Phillip Fletcher.
Stait was DLA Piper TMC head for five years until 2005, and then head of dispute resolution in Europe, Middle East and Asia (EMEA) until 2007.
Milbank launched in London in 1978, but has grown more cautiously than other US firms in the City.
In the latest promotions round, which for Milbank was in November 2008, the firm’s London office received no new partners for the second year running.
This is a huge blow for DLA. Stait is one of their few real stars, their best litigator and one of their biggest rainmakers.
This is a great move. Julian is the best IT litigator in the country and Laurence Jacobs at Milbank is the best transactional IT lawyer. The combination of the 2 of them should be great
And this is a big coup for Milbank. Julian is one of the best in the market. Great with clients and a brilliant litigator.
As a former colleague of many years this is both a blow to DLA and a good move for both Millbank and Stait. He was DLA’s biggest hitting litigator by some distance and I have no doubt will succeed in developinfg a top notch disputes team at Millbank.