Europe

French firm Lefèvre Pelletier & Associés has boosted its Frankfurt office with the arrival of Isabelle Knoché-Hess as a partner. A specialist in Franco-German law, Ms Hess has been practicing since 2003 and previously worked for firms including Marccus Partners, Hogan Lovells and magic circle firm Clifford Chance. At Lefèvre, Ms Hess joins the Franco-German team, which is led by Jacques Henry de Bourmont and Guillaume Rubechi.
Anglo-US law firm DLA Piper has beefed up its German restructuring practice by recruiting Dietmar Schulz and Mike Danielewsky as partners. The two will move to DLA’s Frankfurt office in the new year from international law firm Salans. Both Mr Schulz and Mr Danielewsky were previously partners in Salans’ banking and finance, restructuring and insolvency departments.

US

Philadelphia-headquartered law firm Dechert has bagged Andrew Hulsh as a corporate partner in the firm’s New York office. Mr Hulsh joins from Chicago firm Mayer Brown were he was a partner and co-leader of the firm’s North American private equity practice. A specialist in transactions involving companies based outside the US, including Latin America, the UK, Russia and Asia, Mr Hulsh has advised clients from public and privately-held companies to leading private equity firms and major investment banks.

UK

Maclay Murray & Spens -- one of Scotland's largest commercial law firms – has bagged David Knox as a partner in a high-profile lateral move. He joins from the beginning of next year and will head the firm’s UK pension law team. Mr Knox, who will be based in the firm’s London and Edinburgh offices, was formerly with Dundas & Wilson in Edinburgh, where he led the pensions practice for more than seven years.
Lewis Silkin has appointed commercial and technology specialist James Gill as a partner in its media, brands and technology team. Mr Gill joins from rival London firm SJ Berwin, where he had been a partner for five years. Mr Gill specialises in commercial contracts, technology projects, business process and technology outsourcing, e-commerce, procurement, intellectual property exploitation and data protection. He has advised on the technology, retail, financial services and leisure sectors.

Latin America

Brazilian law firm Veirano Advogados has promoted six senior associates to its partnership table, adding to two lateral hires last month, boosting its competition and real estate teams. Felipe Bastos (civil and insurance), Ricardo Gama (civil and employment), Demian Guedes (public law), Ana Luci Grizzi (environmental), Carlo Verona (arbitration, litigation and real estate) and Fernando Verzoni (international trade) have all been promoted from the beginning of January. Olavo Chinaglia and Rodrigo de Castro joined the firm last month.

Office openings

Offshore law firm Carey Olsen has added to its offices in Guernsey, Jersey and London with an outpost in the Cayman Islands. Partners Jason Allison, Nick Bullmore, Jarrod Farley and Anthony McKenzie have been dispatched to man the venture. The four lawyers specialise in corporate, finance and investment funds.
Meanwhile, Nicole Pineda is to move from Walkers to offshore counterparts Travers Thorp Alberga to be the partner in charge of that firm’s recently formed Latin America practice group. Her appointment follows only a fortnight after Anthony Travers, the chairman of the Cayman Island Stock Exchange, to over as the firm’s senior partner.