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Hogan Lovells’ ambitious capital expansion draws in second HSF partner

As Herbert Smith Freehills (HSF) continues to lose London partners so Hogan Lovells is in the midst of aggressively bulking up in the capital and today (5 November) announced internally that HSF environmental partner Louise Moore will re-join the firm.

Moore – who focuses on M&A and private equity and has advised high profile clients including Energy Capital Partners, Chevron, BP and EDF – will re-join the transatlantic firm’s London office in early 2014, having trained with legacy Lovells and become an environmental partner before moving to HSF in 2007.

Commenting on Moore’s arrival, Andrew Skipper, global co-head of Hogan Lovells’ corporate practice said: ‘Louise has a strong global reputation for environmental work and we are delighted to have her back. Her skills and experience in the field speak for themselves and she is a great fit with our practice, complementing perfectly our corporate, disputes and energy and infrastructure teams.’

Moore added: ‘Hogan Lovells offers an exceptional international platform to really develop an unparalleled global environmental team which is integrated with its market-leading transactional and disputes practices.’

Hogan Lovells has made a number of significant hires into its London office this year, and is expected to make more. This is its second raid on HSF’s London office in under six months, after it hired tax litigation partner Rupert Shiers as head of direct tax disputes in June, and more recently brought on Field Fisher Waterhouse’s privacy and information group head Eduardo Ustaran. Ustaran is notably being held to a 19-month notice period, keeping him at Field Fisher until May 2015. Elsewhere, SJ Berwin private equity partner Ed Harris also quit for Hogan Lovells in late October.

Meanwhile, for HSF, Moore’s move follows disputes star Ted Greeno’s departure for Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan earlier this year; London corporate fraud and asset tracing head Simon Bushell’s move to Latham & Watkins in February; and financial services duo Martyn Hopper and Nikunj Kiri arrival at Linklaters in January.

sarah.downey@legalease.co.uk