Top 50 US firm Proskauer Rose has made a twin litigation partner hire from Morrison & Foerster (MoFo) as it seeks to expand its disputes coverage in New York.

The duo include first-chair trial lawyers Grant Esposito and David Fioccola, who will join the firm’s commercial litigation and trial strategies groups respectively. Esposito brings experience across commercial and class action litigation in areas such as antitrust, mass torts, product liability, healthcare, environmental, securities and transactional disputes. Fioccola defends clients in complex commercial disputes and consumer class actions, including ‘bet the company’ litigation.

Bart Williams, chair of Proskauer’s litigation department, said: “Grant and David are proven expert litigators. Clients trust them whole-heartedly in handling high stakes matters and delivering the win. Their legal acumen will be invaluable to us and our client base.”

Esposito joins Proskauer after more than 17 years as a partner at MoFo, including two years as chair of its litigation department between 2016 and 2018. Prior to that he was at Mayer Brown.

Meantime, Fioccola joins after almost 19 years at MoFo, where most recently he was co-chair of the firm’s class actions and mass torts practice group, as well as a former co-chair of its financial services litigation practice group. Before his time at MoFo, Fioccola was an attorney at Sullivan & Cromwell.

Fioccola said: “As corporate issues become more sophisticated and nuanced, it takes a team of industry and practice experts to deliver winning strategies for clients, in and out of the courtroom. Proskauer has a well-earned track record of success in this area.”

The duo’s arrival brings the total number of lateral partner hires at Proskauer this year to 16, five of them in the litigation department. They included Washington DC-based securities litigation partner Robert Pommer, who arrived in February from Kirkland & Ellis; LA-based securities litigation partner Stephen Hibbard, who arrived in April from Jones Day; and Washington-based patent litigation partner Erik Milch, who joined in July from Cooley.

Other US firms have been strengthening their litigation benches on home turf in recent months. In September, Arnold & Porter hired a team of product liability litigation lawyers from Shook Hardy & Bacon in Houston and Washington, including five partners. In June, Nixon Peabody added a 10-strong real estate litigation team from Kaufman Dolowich in San Francisco. And in May, Morgan Lewis hired a 10-strong financial litigation and regulatory team from Stroock Stroock & Lavan.