Move of the week
King & Wood Mallesons (KWM) IP partner Campbell Forsyth has joined Dentons’ partnership in London. Patent litigator Forsyth was a partner at KWM for nearly two years, having left the partnership of Olswang in 2014. He has a particular focus on the telecommunications, electronics and life sciences sectors.
UK
London
Ashurst corporate partner Anthony Clare has joined Stephenson Harwood’s partnership, after 23 years at the firm.
Boies Schiller & Flexner has appointed international disputes and investigations lawyer Matthew Getz as a partner in London. He has been an international counsel at Debevoise & Plimpton since 2005.
Lindsey Canning has joined White & Case as a partner in its intellectual property (IP) practice in London. Canning was previously counsel at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer in New York.
Dentons has lost two finance partners to Mayer Brown – Tom Eldridge and Liz Soutter. Eldridge was a partner at the firm for 18 years, while Soutter was made up last year.
Hodge Jones & Allen has recruited Edwards Duthie personal injury partner Riffat Yaqub.
Mishcon de Reya has hired KWM’s head of IP in Europe David Rose as a partner in London.
Goodwin Procter has hired KWM partner Gretchen Scott, with Scott set to join the firm’s hospitality and leisure practice.
South
Commercial property partner Liam Desmond has joined Spratt Endicott in Oxfordshire from the partnership of Blake Morgan.
Blake Morgan has hired criminal solicitor Simon White from Gammon Piercy Gaiger.
Midlands
Kennedys has strengthened its insurance practice with the appointment of Ian Davies as a partner to its Birmingham office. Davies was formerly joint head of Lyons Davidson’s defendant division.
Freeths has hired corporate and commercial litigation partner Richard Coates to its Birmingham team. Coates joins Freeths from Emms Gilmore Liberson, where he was director of litigation services.
Europe
DLA Piper finance partner Veronique Collin has joined the partnership of Squire Patton Boggs in Paris.
PLMJ alumnus Pedro Lomba has returned to the firm in Lisbon as of counsel in the firm’s healthcare, life sciences and pharmaceuticals department. Lomba previously worked for the firm as a senior associate and was most recently deputy secretary of state and of parliamentary affairs.
Covington & Burling has appointed Kevin Coates as a partner in Brussels. Coates previously served as head of one of the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Competition’s cartels units between 2012 and 2016.
Herbert Smith Freehills has bolstered its disputes team in Germany, hiring two partners and seven lawyers from litigation boutique Acker Görling & Schmalz.
Osborne Clarke has strengthened its IP practice with partner Matthias Kloth. Kloth will join the Hamburg office in May from White & Case, where he has been a local partner since 2008.
US
Ropes & Gray has hired Weil Gotshal & Manges partner David Blittner as a private equity partner in New York.
Weiguo (Will) Chen has joined the Palo Alto office of Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton as a partner in the firm’s IP practice group. He joins from the partnership of Finnegan Henderson Farabow Garrett & Dunner.
US Department of Justice senior trial lawyer Mark Hamer has joined Baker & McKenzie’s antitrust and competition practice as a partner in Washington DC.
White & Case has hired four McDermott Will & Emery partners to open its first office in Boston. The recruits include McDermott’s head of white collar and securities defence Michael Kendall, as well as partners Kevin Bolan and Lauren Papenhausen. The fourth recruit, Andrew Tomback, will be based in New York.
Debevoise & Plimpton has announced that former United States District Court Judge John Gleeson of the Eastern District of New York has joined the firm as a partner in the litigation department.
Africa
Partner Osborne Molatudi is joining Hogan Lovells’ litigation, arbitration and employment practice in Johannesburg from Cowan Harper.
Asia Pacific
Sparke Helmore Lawyers has recruited Maxine Feletti to head its state compensation team in Canberra. She was formerly a work health and safety adviser at Proximity Legal.
Gene Kwek has joined Bird & Bird’s Singapore office as a managing counsel in its IP team. Kwek joins from Infinitus Law Corporation, where he was an associate director.
Hogan Lovells has announced that partner Lisa Yano has joined the firm’s Tokyo corporate practice from Morgan Lewis & Bockius.
Promotions
Thomas Sankey has been appointed as managing partner of Duane Morris’ Houston office. He succeeds partner Charles Harrell, who has served in that role since 2006.
Mishcon de Reya has doubled the number of partner promotions in 2016, making up six lawyers. This year four women and two men made the cut.
Collas Crill investment funds senior associate Stephen Nelson has been promoted to partnership in the Cayman Islands, having been with the firm since 2007.
Olswang has promoted two lawyers to its partnership in London and Singapore. Intellectual property senior associate Joel Vertes is the only person to have been made up in the City, having trained at the firm in the early 2000s.
Michael Livingston has been elected chairman of Maclay Murray & Spens, after banking partner Robert Laing announced he was to retire. Livingston will take up the position in June.
Allen & Overy has made up six City lawyers in a 21-strong global promotions round. Nearly half of the global promotions are in the banking practice, with the majority of people made up in Europe.
Commercial disputes lawyer Genevieve Quierin has been promoted to the partnership of City-firm Humphries Kerstetter.