Squire Patton Boggs has made six senior hires in its London office across its restructuring and financial services practices.

The new recruits include a team of five restructuring and insolvency lawyers from Brown Rudnick and a derivatives and structured finance partner from Shearman & Sterling. The insolvency team is led by partners Charlotte Møller and Monika Lorenzo-Perez alongside director Helena Clarke and senior associates Rebecca Terrace and Sabina Khan, while Leona McManus joins from Shearman.

Stephen Lerner, global chair of the firm’s restructuring and insolvency practice, said: “These hires represent a significant addition into our global team at a time when we anticipate that the current economic climate is likely to cause higher levels of distress across many industries and the restructuring market will pick up.”

Møller arrives after almost three years at Brown Rudnick where she was head of its European bankruptcy and corporate restructuring practice. Prior to that she spent more than 16 years at Reed Smith, having started her career at Norton Rose. Lorenzo-Perez also spent almost three years at Brown Rudnick having arrived alongside Møller from Reed Smith, where she spent almost a dozen years, most recently as counsel. Møller has worked on a number of cross-border restructurings in the shipping, airline and natural resources industries, including the restructuring and liquidation of Thomas Cook. Lorenzo-Perez also has significant experience working on cross-border restructurings, as well as advising administrators on accelerated asset disposals.

McManus, meantime, arrives after more than 12 years at Shearman, where she was counsel. She started her career at Simmons & Simmons, where she was an associate in its capital markets practice. Her experience spans a range of structured finance and derivatives transactions, including margin loans and equity collar financings.

Paula Laird, head of Squire’s European financial services practice, said: “Leona’s specialist knowledge and high-end experience is widely sought after… The expansion of our derivatives capabilities builds on our strength in private equity and structured finance, while also presenting opportunities to grow our practice in the commodities and project finance space.”

In July, Squire also hired another Brown Rudnick lawyer in London – financial disputes specialist Christian Toms, who joined as a partner in the firm’s litigation practice.

Freshfields bolstered its restructuring team in London last month, adding partner Lisa Stevens from Kirkland & Ellis at the same time that leveraged finance partner Carol Van der Vorst moved over from Ropes & Gray. 

And earlier in the year German independent Gleiss Lutz beefed up its London restructuring practice with the hire of partner Christian Halász from Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld.