City recruitment kept pace last week as a trio of firms made City hires, led by Baker McKenzie’s corporate hire from Clifford Chance, while Reed Smith made big plays in the US.
Baker McKenzie added to its London bench with the hire of Kathy Honeywood to its energy, mining and industrials practice. Honeywood joins from Magic Circle firm Clifford Chance, bringing experience in M&A transactions, corporate finance and joint ventures.
Baker McKenzie London managing partner Alex Chadwick (pictured) commented: ‘With almost 20 years of M&A experience and strong client relationships, Kathy is well placed to enhance our Corporate EMI practice and to capitalise on the huge opportunities in the energy industry. This plays straight into our strategy of bolstering and growing our key transactional practices in London.’
Meanwhile, London independent Wedlake Bell bolstered its corporate and capital markets practice with two senior hires from Watson Farley & Williams in Nigel Taylor and Martin Thomas. Taylor specialises in private equity transactions, M&A and corporate structuring while Thomas works on IPOs and secondary offerings of equity and debt on the London capital markets.
Martin Arnold, managing partner of Wedlake Bell, said: ‘They will add real value and depth to our thriving corporate and capital markets practice. These appointments reflect the firm’s commitment to growth and the further strengthening of our specialist offering in key sectors to meet client demand.’
DWF also made hires in the City, bolstering its real estate arm with the hire of Andrew Edwards from American firm Greenberg Traurig. Edwards will work with DWF’s regional clients and particularly private equity houses, fund managers, property companies and high net worth individuals.
Elsewhere in the UK, Womble Bond Dickinson (WBD) recruited competition partner Andrij Jurkiw from Mishcon de Reya, where he had been since 2013 and served as head of competition. Jurkiw will join WBD in Bristol, and focuses on UK & EU competition law, with particular experience in food, building materials, pharma and real estate.
Meanwhile in the US, Reed Smith made a spate of hires which brought five new partners to its Washington, Austin and New York offices, all from Norton Rose Fulbright.
In Washington, the firm landed Frederick Robinson and Lesley Reynolds in its litigation practice. Further south in Texas, the firm recruited Ben Koplin and Jeff Layne. Layne has experience in government and internal investigations and related litigation, representing health care and life sciences companies. Koplin, meanwhile, focuses on health care compliance and the regulation of health care providers. The pair’s arrival sees Reed Smith add a new office in Austin.
Rounding off the hires, Reed Smith brought in Cori Goldberg in New York. Goldberg has experience handling Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and regulatory compliance issues, as well as government and internal investigations.
Commenting on all the hires, co-chair of the firm’s life sciences group Scot Hasselman said: ‘This is a fantastic group of lawyers. It will bring together two historical health care and life sciences practices with the accompanying relationships and experience.’