Eversheds Sutherland has bolstered its global disputes bench in London with the hire of a partner from Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and another most recently of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan. 

Lambros Kilaniotis joins the transatlantic firm having most recently co-led the UK competition practice at Quinn Emanuel. Meantime Joaquin Terceño arrives from Freshfields in Tokyo, where he was head of disputes and international arbitration in Japan and helped to lead the firm’s Asia international arbitration team based in London.

Kilaniotis left Quinn Emanuel in April having joined the litigation heavyweight in 2022 from RPC as its first UK competition partner hire after former competition co-head Boris Bronfentrinker’s high-profile defection to Willkie Farr the year before with a large team. 

He brings extensive experience across all types of collective, stand-alone and follow-on competition litigation matters and has acted in cases in the courts for firms across sectors including retail, sports, media, financial services and technology. At Eversheds he will lead the competition litigation team.

For his part, Terceño has relocated to London after spending the past seven years in Freshfields’ Tokyo office, where he made partner in 2021. 

Qualified in New York and in England and Wales, Terceño represents corporations and sovereign nations in international commercial and investment treaty arbitrations. He has also acted for clients in commercial litigation in the US federal appellate, district and federal bankruptcy courts and in New York state courts. His practice focuses on disputes in the energy, telecommunications, investment and infrastructure sectors, and also includes advising clients in ESG disputes more generally.

Mark Davenport, Eversheds’ co-head of global litigation, said the hires “add to the global capability and heavyweight experience that we are able to deliver for our clients”.

A Freshfields spokesperson said the firm wished Terceño the best. 

Quinn Emanuel London senior partner, Richard East, said: “We thank Lambros for his contribution and wish him well.”

The hires follow Eversheds losing an international arbitration team to HFW in Paris in May that included partners Julien Fouret and Gaëlle Le Quillec.