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Bakers makes eleventh City lateral in last year with Ashurst corporate hire

Ashurst’s global head of corporate Jason Radford (pictured) is unfazed by the loss to Baker McKenzie’s prolific City hiring spree of corporate partner Nick Bryans and has pledged a sustained investment drive to maintain the firm’s recent financial rebound.

An Ashurst-lifer and partner since 2005, Bryans is joining the London office of Bakers. He follows ten other laterals the expansive firm has made already in London over the last year. He was head of the Ashurst’s Middle East practice in Dubai from 2007 to 2010 and a member of the firm’s Japanese practice group.

Specialising in M&A and equity capital markets, Bryans is focused on energy and resources, infrastructure, transport, pharma and life sciences, industrials and TMT. He advises corporates, banks and financial sponsors on public and private mergers, acquisitions and joint ventures, IPOs, private placements and other capital raising deals.

Jane Hobson, head of Bakers’ London M&A practice, commented: ‘Nick’s hire will enhance Baker McKenzie’s market profile in London and accelerate the pace of the step-change we are already seeing in our transactional practices.’

Bryans added: ‘What really appealed to me about Baker McKenzie is its stellar global platform, the breadth of its client base and the strength of its brand. There is also a palpable sense of momentum behind the growth and trajectory of the firm’s transactional practices.’

This is Bakers’ eleventh London partner addition in the last year, following on from the hires of Marc Florent from Allen & Overy (dispute resolution), Prabhu Narasimhan from White & Case (tax), Philip Thomson from Ashurst (corporate/energy, mining & infrastructure), Philip Annett from A&O (financial services), Caitlin McErlane from Sidley Austin (financial services), Peter Lu from White & Case (corporate M&A), Rob Mathews from White & Case (capital markets), David Becker from White & Case (capital markets), Mathew Dening from Sidley Austin (structured capital markets) and Haden Henderson from Ropes & Gray (capital markets).

Meanwhile, Radford is optimistic that the firm’s sharpened focus on financial performance has it well-placed to sustain the upward momentum of its recent success. On the back of three consecutive years of growth, Ashurst added £77m to its top line to hit £641m for the year to 30 April 2019, a significant 14% increase on the £564m turnover of last year. PEP also soared 31% to £972,000 from last year’s £743,000, putting Ashurst within sight of its stated intention of smashing the £1m PEP barrier in the next financial year.

Radford told Legal Business: ‘We have invested considerably in our global corporate capability, having hired six laterals so far this year. This is all part of a drive to create a higher performing corporate team to consolidate and build on our major successes over the last two years.’

He said there was scope to hire more laterals for the corporate practice over the next few months, with London, France, Italy and Germany all cited as areas of intended investment.

nathalie.tidman@legalease.co.uk