Dentons has lost two finance partners to Mayer Brown as the latter works to bolster its finance capability in the UK.
The hires of Tom Eldridge and Liz Soutter boost Mayer Brown’s London finance practice from 22 lawyers to 24, and brings female partner numbers in the practice up to two.
Eldridge was a partner at Dentons for 18 years in the energy infrastructure and project finance practice. He advises financiers, developers, operators, offtakers, sponsors and governments on UK and international project and export finance transactions in the energy, infrastructure and mining and metal sectors.
Finance partner Soutter was at Dentons for more than three years after joining from Hogan Lovells. She was made up to partner in May 2015.
Soutter specialises in debt financing solutions to investment funds and her expertise spans the entire range of fund lending products, from investor call bridging to general partner support and management fee line facilities and portfolio acquisitions.
Mayer Brown has made a number of notable lateral hires in the City so far this year. In February it took Reed Smith Europe and Middle East head of private equity Perry Yam to lead its push into the sector.
The Lawyer reported earlier this month the firm was piloting agile working in its London construction team, making it the first US practice in the City to consider the new way of working. Mayer Brown will report back to the partnership on the results of the trial when it ends in July.
A push into agile working would see Mayer Brown’s 225 UK lawyers including 87 partners adopt the new system.
The plans follow a largely static few years for the firm’s UK financials, which saw the firm drop from fourth place in The Lawyer’s Top 30 International Firms in London ranking back in 2010 to tenth place last year.
Mayer Brown’s London office revenue grew slightly from $162m in 2013 to $167.3m in 2014 following a number of key lateral hires, including White & Case banking and finance partner Mayank Gupta and Allen & Overy benefits partner Stefan Martin.