Simpson Thacher & Bartlett’s London office has grown with the hiring of Richard Hanson as a partner in its securitisation and structured products practice. Hanson joins the team from Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft, where he spent a short nine-month stint after leaving Morgan Lewis & Bockius.
Commenting on the hire, European managing partner Wheatly MacNamara said: ‘Rick’s experience and deep understanding across each of the investment funds, real estate, energy and infrastructure markets makes him an excellent complement to our robust corporate team in London.’
The addition marks the latest expansion of the firm’s London office, following its December 2024 hires of leveraged finance partners Bryan Robson and William Gwyn from the London office of rival US firm Sidley Austin, and its hire of fellow leveraged finance partner Dan Peach from Linklaters last November.
Simpson Thacher recently named partners James Howe and Geoff Bailhache as co-heads of European M&A in its London office. They take over as department heads from Legal 500 Hall of Fame partner Ben Spiers, who led the team for nine years.
Howe joined the firm from Gibson Dunn in 2020, while Bailhache arrived in 2021 from private equity house Blackstone.
Two other U.S. headquartered firms have also strengthened their London teams with lateral partner hires, as Cadwalader has hired leveraged finance specialist Edward Holmes, who arrives after a 14 year career at Paul Hastings, while Cooley has added Jonathan Cohen, co-head of Ashurst’s tech M&A practice, to its partner roster.
Cohen’s arrival will bolster Cooley’s venture capital offering in the UK. ‘Jonathan’s experience, drive and entrepreneurialism are a perfect match for us,’ co-head of the London office Claire Keast-Butler said in a press release. ‘We are excited about the contribution Jonathan will make to our growth strategy as the go-to firm for disruptive high-growth technology and life sciences companies and investors in the UK and Europe.’
The hires follow in the wake of recent notable departures from both Cadwalader and Cooley, with the former losing fund finance partner Samantha Hutchinson to King & Spalding along with her five-strong team in June 2024, and the latter losing London managing partner Justin Stock to Akin last July.
Also in London, Charles Russell Speechlys has hired Mark Dewar and Greg Stonefield, into its commercial team and corporate team respectively.
Dewar joins the firm after heading up the commercial contracts practice at DLA Piper, while Stonefield arrives from Eversheds Sutherland’s international corporate finance department.
Elsewhere, Vinson & Elkins has hired finance partner Harry Upcott from A&O Shearman. Upcott’s expertise focuses on the aviation and satellite financing sectors, advising financial institutions, operators and airlines on leasing and M&A transactions.
Broadfield has hired Michael Dempsey from Addleshaw Goddard into its planning, infrastructure and public law team, while Baker McKenzie has hired private equity real estate partner Mark Thompson from Mishcon De Reya.
Clyde & Co has appointed commercial litigation partner Ian Roberts as its UK insurance practice chair. A Legal 500 leading partner for insurance: foreign firms in Singapore, Roberts steps into the newly formed role after ten years leading the firm’s South East Asia insurance practice.
Keystone Law has bolstered several of its departments with the appointment of five partners and one consultant solicitor to the firm. Rebecca Garner, Anouska Kapur, Deepak Manghnani, Robert Ganpatsingh, Charlotte Pollard, and Neave Maguire will boost Keystone’s rising aviation, residential property, commercial property, dispute resolution, private client, and construction & engineering practices.
Previously, Garner was a partner at Stephenson Harwood, Kapur from Child & Child, Manghnani from Adams & Remers, Ganpatsingh from DMH Stallard, Pollard from Buckles Solicitor, and Maguire was a senior legal consultant at Systech.
In Ireland, DWF has appointed Liam Harnett as a partner in its Dublin office and global risks team. Harnett joins with extensive experience in complex commercial disputes, having previously spent five years in Clyde & Co’s London office before returning to Dublin, where he has spent the last four years.
In France, Freshfields has built out its Paris bench with the addition of corporate M&A partner Benoit Marpeau and a team of one counsel and two associates from the French boutique firm Peltier Juvigny Marpeau & Associés.
Linklaters has continued its Paris hiring spree by adding partners Pierre-Amoux Mayoly and Shirin Deyhim from McDermott Will & Emery into its leveraged finance practice. The duo join the firm after the firm’s hire last week of an eight-lawyer global restructuring and insolvency team from French firm Darrois Villey Maillot Brochie.
In Brussels, Norton Rose Fulbright has further reinforced its antitrust and competition practice with the appointment of Jean-Nicolas Maillard and Yves Botteman.
Maillard and Botteman both join from Dentons, where Maillard was head of the firm’s EU practice. Maillard’s practice focuses on EU and French competition law, in particular cartel and antitrust investigations, while Botteman brings expertise on EU and national merger control and cartel and antitrust investigations before the European Commission.
In Germany, Heuking has snapped up Taylor Wessing’s Munich life sciences team, with partners Manja Epping and Stefanie Greifeneder set to move in early 2026 alongside new partner Sonja Ackermann. The trio are likely to be followed by three to five associates.
Epping and Greifeneder bring significant expertise in regulatory and contractual issues in the pharmaceutical and medical device industry.
In Frankfurt, McDermott hired Johannes Eckhardt, the head of legal for M&A at multinational science and tech company Merck, as a partner in the healthcare and life sciences transactions team.
And lastly, Jones Day hired international arbitration partner Kay-Jannes Wegner in the firm’s global disputes practice, based in the Singapore office.
