Squire Patton Boggs has hired a trio of banking and finance lawyers from Roca & Junyent in Madrid as the US firm seeks to expand its financial services practice group in Spain.

The team is led by partner Pablo Rodriguez Abelenda, who is joined by of counsel Ana Bohorquez and associate Diego de Egea. Their practice focuses on a wide range of financial matters, with Abelenda specialising in structured finance, regulation and general banking law, as well as syndicated financing, direct lending, securitisations and secondary debt markets for non-performing loans. Bohorquez is dual-qualified in Spanish and German law and advises on cross-border transactions involving German entities, while de Egea specialises in debt refinancing.

Rafael Alonso, Squire’s Madrid office managing partner, said: “Pablo is one of the leading structured finance specialists in the Spanish market. He and his team really complement and further diversify our strong financial services offering here, which, under Manuel Mingot, has gone from strength to strength in recent years.”

Abelenda had been at Roca & Junyent for just over five years, most recently as head of the firm’s banking and finance practice and a member of its board. He previously had spells as a senior associate at Spanish firm Cuatrecasas and at Allen & Overy, where he worked in both its London and Madrid offices. He started his career at Spanish firm Broseta.

Bohorquez, meantime, spent just over four years at Roca & Junyent having joined from German bank IKB Deutsche Industriebank in Madrid where she was director of its legal department. De Egea was at Roca & Junyent for just under three years, arriving after a brief spell as legal counsel at Telefonica.

The trio’s arrival is the latest set of hires for Squire’s international business. This year the firm has brought in shipping and commodities partner Kate Sherrard from Clifford Chance in Singapore, Eversheds Surtherlands’ former arbitration co-head Rodman Bundy from Harry Elias Partnership also in Singapore and real estate finance partner Jonathan Lent and team from Gowling WLG in London. However, Squire lost Singapore co-head Ignatius Hwang to McDermott Will & Emery in March.