Senior fraud partner Andy McGregor is leaving Allen & Overy (A&O) to join London boutique Enyo just 18 months after joining the Magic Circle firm.

His departure comes hard on the heels of Friday’s announcement by A&O and Shearman & Sterling that their respective partners had voted overwhelmingly to approve their landmark transatlantic merger.

While GLP understands his move to the boutique is amicable and not directly linked to the merger vote, the impending deal would have added an extra layer of conflicts for McGregor to navigate given the strong global transactional practices A&O Shearman will boast.

McGregor joined A&O from London independent RPC, where he was head of civil fraud. Moving to Enyo will replicate the largely conflict-free environment in which he operated for 12 years at RPC alongside respected financial litigator Tom Hibbert.

Enyo senior partner George Maling said: “Andy joins us at an exciting time as our civil fraud and banking litigation practices go from strength to strength. His experience, which includes some of the largest cases before the High Court in recent years, fits perfectly with our practice.”

McGregor adds to the bench at Enyo, which was founded in 2010 by former Addleshaw Goddard partners Simon Twigden and Pietro Marino to create, in their own words “a bespoke disputes practice that could take on the quality work that so many firms had to decline for conflict reasons”.

Well-liked, strategic and canny, McGregor has more than two decades of experience handling complex, high-value international disputes, primarily representing banks and other financial institutions, corporates and high-net-worth individuals. 

That experience with corporate defendants and claimants is a strength, as is his work with wealthy owners of closely held family businesses. At the same time, his financial product-based knowledge, for example in derivatives claims, is a genuine plus for Enyo as well as signalling to other potential laterals that Enyo’s ambition is undimmed.  

Enyo’s instructions have spanned various high-profile mandates for Libya’s Investment Authority and the long-running North Shore Ventures v Anstead Holdings litigation, in which it acted for the late Boris Berezovsky. 

In May 2022, the firm reached a significant landmark when Twigden and Marino handed over leadership of the firm to Maling and Edward Allen, who became managing partner. Last year the founding partners stepped down from daily practice as partners and are currently working as senior consultants. In May, the firm promoted two partners from within: Katie Marquet-Horwood and Fred Thorling to the partnership. 

Commenting on McGregor’s departure an A&O spokesperson said: “We would like to thank him for the contribution that he has made during his time at Allen & Overy and wish him all the best for the future.”