UK and Ireland

Former senior banker Lucinda Riches has been appointed as a non-executive director on the board of London-based European law firm
SJ Berwin.
A recognised business leader, Ms Riches is touted by the firm as bringing experience of working at board level with FTSE and other international quoted companies. She started her banking career at Chase Manhattan, and during a 21-year stint at UBS Investment Bank and its predecessors she was widely credited with building one of the most profitable international equity capital markets teams. Ms Riches is also currently a non-executive director of The Diverse Income Trust, an adviser to the Board of the British Standards Institution and a trustee of social care charity Sue Ryder.
SJ Berwin managing partner Rob Day said: ‘This is an exciting and important appointment for the firm. Lucinda’s hugely relevant experience and expertise will make an invaluable contribution as we continue to develop and deliver top quality client service while expanding our international reach.’
London-based law firm Forsters has appointed four new partners, taking the total partnership to 41.
The additions are investment and development specialist Victoria Towers, construction partner Andrew Parker and property experts Lucy Barber and Chris Myers.
Commenting on the promotions, Forsters’ managing partner Paul Roberts said: ‘These appointments will strengthen our property teams underlining our determination to remain the leading dedicated property practice in London. These partners join property groups which have enjoyed double digit growth for the second year in a row as a result of both increased activity and new client wins.’

Fellow London law firm Lewis Silkin has appointed Colin Leckey to its employment, reward and immigration team. He joins from the London office of Chicago-based firm Baker & McKenzie, where he was a senior associate in the employment department.
The appointment follows the recruitment to the same team at the beginning of the year of partner Christopher Hitchens.

Leading Irish law firm Mason Hayes & Curran has reached the 60-partner mark with the appointment of commercial law and contracts specialist Wendy Hederman as partner in the practice’s commercial department.

Anglo-US global law firm DLA Piper has bolstered its London restructuring practice with the addition of former Goldman Sachs executive director and senior counsel Justin Conway.
A highly rated practitioner in the Europe, Middle East and Africa debt trading market, Mr Conway provides transactional legal advice to the private distressed bank loan and high yield loan trading desks.

Scotland-based law firm Maclay Murray & Spens has made its seventh partner appointment in five months with the hire of Nick Rutter to the firm’s financial services team. Mr Rutter, who will be based at the firm’s London office, joins from south-east England practice Thomas Eggar, where he was head of its funds practice. The announcement follows the appointment last month of litigation partner David Scott, from rival McGrigors, to MMS’s construction and engineering team.

US

Pittsburgh-headquartered global law firm K&L Gates has appointed Andrew Kozusko as partner in its intellectual property litigation practice. Previously an associate with Kirkpatrick & Lockhart (which evolved into K&L Gates in 2007), Mr Kozusko has most recently practised at Philadelphia-based Duane Morris.
Mr Kozusko has mainly concentrated on representing generic pharmaceutical companies in abbreviated new drug application litigation under the US’s Hatch-Waxman Act.

Houston-based global law firm network Lex Mundi has appointed Suzanne Fine as its director of professional development.
Ms Fine has already served as global head of professional development at UK magic and silver circle firms Linklaters and Lovells respectively, and will now support Lex Mundi’s160 member firms in 120 countries with learning initiatives and global training programmes.

Europe

Munich-based law firm Noerr has snapped up structured financing expert Matthias Geurts from Deutsche Bank in a move to strengthen its integrated regulatory and tax advice team. Mr Geurts specialises in investment structures as they relate to commercial, tax and regulatory law.

London-headquartered international legal practice Norton Rose has poached two partners for its Amsterdam office, with the appointments
of Herman Wamelink and Maartje Govart.
Mr Wamelink joins as a banking partner from London-based magic circle firm Allen & Overy and has experience in advising large banks and leading high-profile transactions.
Ms Govart, who has 13 years’ experience in employment law in London, New York and Amsterdam, will add partner-level expertise to the existing employment practice in Amsterdam and significantly strengthen its employment capability.

Also in Amsterdam, Dutch law firm Houthoff Buruma has appointed Thomas de Weerd as partner in its outsourcing, IT and technology department.
The Amsterdam-headquartered firm snapped up the outsourcing specialist in 2002 and he has been in the firm’s intellectual property and IT practice group since then.
‘Thomas has extensive experience as advisor in outsourcing transactions, as well as in negotiating complex IT and other technology related agreements,’ commented managing partner Johan Rijlaarsdam.

Leading European provider of legal and tax services CMS has made a bumper announcement as 50 partners have been appointed across Europe, including eight in the UK.
As well as 34 partner appointments, there were also two lateral hires and another 14 partners were added to CMS after CMS RPA became the Lisbon arm of the franchised network in 2012.
CMS’s London-based managing partner Duncan Weston pointed out that promotions bring the firm’s worldwide partnership to 780.
The 50 most recent additions are: in the competition department – Caroline Hobson (London); in corporate – James Parkes (London), Vincenzo Giangiacomo (Rome), Till Benjamin Liebau (Frankfurt), Kai-Guido Schick (Stuttgart) Jacob Siebert (Hamburg); in commercial, regulatory and disputes – Juan Crosby (London), Bas Baks (Utrecht), Thomas Lennarz (Stuttgart), Martin Krause (Cologne); in employment – Dominic Harris (Pensions – London), Pierre Bonneau (Employment – Paris), Martin Luetzeler (Cologne); in the energy department – Olivia Quaid (London); in financial services – Michael Cavers (London); in infrastructure and project finance – Thomas Hamerl (Vienna); in maritime – Matthias Schlingmann (Hamburg); in real estate – Danielle Drummond Brassington (London), Ashley Damiral (London), Aline Divo (Paris), Femke Stroucken (Amsterdam), Niklas Ganssauge (Hamburg), Jakob Steiff (Frankfurt), Johannes Hysek (Vienna); in intellectual property – Anne-Laure Villedieu (Paris), Heike Blank (Cologne), Michael Kamps (Cologne), Frank Linde (Hamburg); in the tax department – Carlo Romano (Rome), Elisabeth Ashworth (Paris), Xavier Daluzeau (Paris), Daniel Gutmann (Paris), Olivier Querinjean (Brussels), Sibylle Novak (Vienna).
The two most recent lateral recruitments to the partnership are Stefano Chirichigno to the tax department at the firm’s Rome office, and Victor Hernan, also a tax specialist, but in Madrid.

French independent law firm De Pardieu Brocas Maffei has poached private equity specialist Maxime Dequesne from the Paris office of English law firm SJ Berwin. He specialises in advising investment funds on the equity side in the context of mid-cap leveraged buy-outs.

China

Norton Rose has appointed Jing Wand as a corporate partner in Beijing. An expert in mergers and acquisitions, Mr Wang joins from magic circle firm Allen & Overy, where he was counsel in the Beijing office. He focuses on advising major Chinese and global corporates on strategic M&A activity, with a particular expertise in the biotech, food and beverages sectors. Mr Wang is dual qualified, having been admitted to the Chinese bar in 1998 as well as the New York State Bar in 2002.
New York-based global law firm Skadden has recruited Christopher Betts to join its Hong Kong office from Los Angeles-based Paul Hastings. He will join the firm in May and will focus on M&A and capital markets, according to Asian Legal Business Online.
At Paul Hastings, Mr Betts advised Far East Horizon on its $750 million initial public offering in March 2011, and also assisted China Rongsheng Heavy Industries Group Holdings with its $1.8 billion flotation in 2010.

Oceania

Leading Australian law firm Sparke Helmore has poached a senior player from Sydney-based rival HWL Ebsworth. Michelle Segaert makes the move to join the Sparke Helmore partnership in the firm’s corporate group, reports Australasian Legal Business Online.
Ms Segaert is an expert in regulated and unregulated corporate transactions, fund management and financial services regulation. She has also worked in-house for brewers Lion Nathan and the now defunct Sydney-based Allco Finance Group, as well as working with private practice, including a stint at Linklaters.

Africa

Sbu Gule has started a four-year term as chairman of global law firm Norton Rose’s South Africa office. Mr Gule has been a director since 2001, specialising in employment law and immigration. He has been a senior member of the firm’s recruitment committee and its management committee.