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Reed Smith ramps up City litigation practice with hire of King & Wood’s Nick Brocklesby

Reed Smith is continuing to ramp up its City practice, its largest office globally, with the hire of King & Wood Mallesons SJ Berwin litigator Nick Brocklesby.

Brocklesby became an SJ Berwin partner in 2008 and has experience of complex commercial litigation and regulatory work, with a financial services focus.

Some of his recent case highlights include advising Morgan Stanley in the Court of Appeal, in relation to proceedings against Tael One Partners, as well as acting for Apple in its high-profile litigation against The Beatles relating to the iTunes Music Store.

Richard Spafford, partner and head of Reed Smith’s Europe and Middle East commercial disputes group said: ‘We are very pleased that Nick is joining us. He is a high quality litigator with an excellent reputation and will be a superb addition to our substantial team.’

The hire comes as the firm looks to expand its financial services disputes practice in London and follows the recruitment of Travers Smith’s leverage finance partner Ben Davis, who joined the firm’s City office in March.

The firm also recently bolstered its European corporate and banking capability in Paris, with the hire of Hogan Lovells corporate partner Isabelle MacElhone in February, who was previously a partner with Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer.

This followed the launch of Reed Smith’s Paris competition practice in April last year after it hired Hogan Lovells antitrust partner Michel Debroux.

The global top 30 firm has seen its 2013 revenue grow by 6% to $1.075bn from $1.013bn, while its profit per equity partner figure rose by 5.5% to $1.14m from $1.08m in the previous financial year.

jaishree.kalia@legalease.co.uk

For further analysis of Reed Smith’s City practice see Reed Smith set for record year in London thanks to lateral push and sector focus