Debevoise & Plimpton partner Sophie Lamb is joining Latham & Watkins to head up its arbitration practice.
Lamb was a member of Debevoise’s arbitration group for eight years, working on investment disputes, litigation in the English and overseas courts, as well as business and human rights cases.
She is set to lead the growth and development of Latham’s London arbitration practice, with its overall litigation team compromised of four purely City-based partners.
Lamb began her career as a barrister at One Essex Court and was featured in The Lawyer Hot 100 in 2014.
In 2013, she appeared before the Supreme Court alongside fellow Debevoise partner Peter Goldsmith QC for Kazakhstan-based Ust-Kamenogorsk Hydropower Plant JSC, with Essex Court Chambers barristers acting for the respondents in a key appeal over the English court’s ability to enforce arbitration awards.
Commenting on her departure, London co-managing partner Goldsmith said: “Sophie and I have enjoyed many successful campaigns and I will of course miss her presence in the team. She is an outstanding litigator and advocate and has been a major contributor to the successes of the London litigation practice. Latham & Watkins are very fortunate to have her.”
Latham has made few litigation hires in the City, instead recruiting heavily in corporate and private equity. The firm last recruited Herbert Smith Freehills litigation partner Simon Bushell in 2013.