DLA Piper partner Teresa Zueco has left the firm after almost a decade to be managing partner in Spain at top 40 US firm Squire Patton Boggs.

Zueco, a prominent M&A and private equity lawyer in the Spanish market, has joined Squire as a partner in its global corporate practice in Madrid. A six-strong team of corporate M&A and private equity lawyers has moved over from DLA Piper with her, made up of legal directors Pablo García and Rocío García and associates Alejandra Castañeda, Luis Gutiérrez, Alvaro Luaces and Mónica Sebares.

Their arrival brings the number of legal professionals in Squire’s Madrid office to 36, including 11 partners.

Squire’s European managing partner, Jonathan Jones, described Zueco and her team as “highly regarded not just in Spain, but across the European market,” adding that the firm has broadened the scope and depth of the work it does in the private equity sphere.

“With Teresa and her team we can offer further cross-border transactional expertise for private equity firms, Spanish corporates and multinationals looking to invest in Spain and across the continent,” he said.

Zueco will take over immediately as the managing partner in Spain from corporate finance specialist Rafael Alonso, who has served in the role for 11 years and will become senior partner in the Madrid office, the firm’s sole location in the country.

Alonso described Zueco’s appointment as “a new and exciting phase in the development of our practice in Spain,” adding that she “has the vision and ambition to take our Madrid team forward to the next stage in its growth.”

Zueco brings 20 years’ experience advising on cross-border transactions for industrial and private equity clients to her new firm, as well as M&A, private equity and special situations expertise in the healthcare, hospitality, energy and technology sectors. Her private equity practice involves working mostly with Spanish, French and US funds, predominantly in the mid-market.

Prior to joining DLA Piper’s corporate practice in Madrid in June 2012, Zueco spent seven years as a local partner in the Paris office of Dewey & LeBoeuf and became one of many lawyers to leave the US firm around the time it filed for bankruptcy. Earlier she spent three years as an associate in the Madrid and Brussels offices of leading Spanish firm Garrigues.

Legal director Rocío García, meanwhile, brings experience in M&A, real estate and reorganisations, while fellow legal director Pablo García is a private equity lawyer focusing on clients in the infrastructure, telecom and biotech sectors.

The team’s arrival at Squire follows the US firm adding a trio of banking and finance lawyers in Madird from Spanish firm Roca & Junyent in June led by partner Pablo Rodriguez Abelenda.

Also in June, the firm hired private investment specialist Steven Ward from Paul Hastings to spearhead its new funds practice in London.

Going the other way, Squire lost its Singapore co-managing partner, Ignatius Hwang, to US rival McDermott Will & Emery in March as McDermott prepared to relaunch in Asia with an office in the city-state focusing on energy and infrastructure.