UK and Asia

London-based international law firm Withers has boosted its litigation department by poaching a leading white-collar crime specialist and his team from a US rival.
Gerallt Owen – who has been ranked in The Lawyer newspaper’s ‘Hot 100’ list of leading practitioners – joins as a partner from Crowell & Moring’s London office, where he was head of the Washington-based firm’s international regulatory and corporate crime department.
He has been involved in several high-profile cases brought by a range of UK prosecutors, including the Serious Fraud Office, the Health & Safety Executive, Revenue & Customs and the Financial Services Authority.
Mr Owen is expected to join the firm in July and will bring a team that includes two senior counsel in Anne Davies and Fiona Simpson.
Christopher Coffin, Withers’ global head of litigation, cited Mr Owen’s experience in Singapore, China and elsewhere in Asia as being of particular interest to the firm. Withers has just announced the opening of an office in Singapore to add to its existing Asian presence in Hong Kong.
Commented Mr Coffin: ‘This is a key area of focus for us to achieve our ambitious growth plans for the contentious practice. With [Mr Owen’s] standing and experience, he and his team will make a valuable contribution from day one.’

US

The Portland office of global law firm K&L Gates has recruited back to the practice employment specialist Dori Gilbert from a leading public relations company.
Ms Gilbert – who worked with Preston Gates & Ellis (now K&L Gates) in 2004 – joins the firm as a partner from international communication agency Waggener Edstrom Worldwide, where she was vice president of legal and business affairs.
With her return, Waggener Edstrom has entered into a preferred provider relationship with K&L Gates.

K&L Gates has also been adding to its Orange County office as Jan Weir joins as partner, bringing three associates with him from fellow California law firm Stradling Yocca Carlson & Rauth.
Mr Weir is a specialist patent, trademark, copyright and unfair competition litigator, with specific expertise in abbreviated new drug application matters arising from the US’s Hatch-Waxman Act.

New York law firm Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp has added Gerald Hathaway to its ranks as a partner in the firm’s employment group. He will advise domestic and international corporations on issues including national and international corporate transactions and financial restructuring as well as large-scale workforce redundancy programmes.
Previously at San Francisco-based firm Littler Mendelson, Mr Hathaway has experience in defending Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and National Labour Relations Board claims and private lawsuits, including discrimination class actions, Fair Labour Standards Act collective actions and claims related to various discrimination acts.

UK

London-based law firm Thomas Eggar has made Sarah Birkbeck a partner to head the practice’s litigation intellectual property and technology function.
The IP, IT and media specialist lawyer will assist in both the media and technology sectors, bringing her experience of representing high-profile organisations such as British broadcaster BSkyB, Canadian radio business Arcadia and American news agency United Press International.
Prior to her appointment, Ms Birkbeck was a longstanding partner at rival London firm DMH Stallard.

Pittsburgh-headquartered global law firm Reed Smith has added two more London partners to its expanding energy and natural resources group.
Peter Zaman joins from magic-circle firm Clifford Chance and Nick Rock leaves the dwindling partnership of fellow US firm Dewey & LeBoeuf.
Mr Zaman was previously head of CC’s environmental
and climatic trading group, and is a specialist in climate change, carbon trading and finance issues.
Mr Rock advises on transactions, projects and disputes.

Financial services expert David Williams is jumping from one international law firm to another as he leaps from Anglo-US firm DLA Piper to the London headquarters of Simmons & Simmons. He specialises in investment funds and asset management and was head of DLA’s UK investment funds team. He joins Simmons as a partner.

Europe

Paris-based law firm SBKG has snapped up former trademark lawyer Maria Luisa Arce-Torrecilla for its intellectual property department.
Ms Arce-Torrecilla is dual qualified, having been admitted to the Lima Bar in 1986 and to the Paris Bar in 2006. She worked as a trademark attorney for 15 years at the law firms Regimbeau and Novagraaf; at the latter she headed a team of trademark attorneys. In 2006 she joined Paris law firm Marchais de Candé as an intellectual property specialist.

Also in Paris, English firm Field Fisher Waterhouse has strengthened its finance practice with the appointment of Hélène Lefebvre as partner.
Ms Lefebvre had been at the structured finance team at French global law firm Gide Loyrette Nouel since 1996, having built a specialism in structuring, negotiating and drafting a variety of finance agreements.

Asia

Leading French law firm UGGC has appointed Zhen Huang as a partner in its Shanghai office. A Gide Loyrette Nouel partner in Shanghai since 2007, Ms Huang is a corporate specialist focusing on mergers and acquisitions, foreign direct investment deals in China. She has also worked in both Paris and Beijing.

London-based firm Norton Rose has beefed up its China practice with the relocation of banking, finance and private equity partner Milton Osborn from Johannesburg to Beijing. Mr Osborn specialises in finance and merger and acquisition deals in Africa. He has also advised cross-border transactions between Africa and Asia. Norton Rose says his new Beijing role which will include managing the increasing flow of transactions between China and Africa.

Fellow London-based firm Ince & Co has recruited a leader for its Singapore insurance group by luring Aruno Rajaratnam from the local office of a global brokerage house. Ms Rajaratnam moves to the firm from Willis Insurance Brokers where she was managing director of the Asia financial exchange business for the past six years.