Pinsent Masons has kicked off 2019 in expansionist mode, opening a new office in Frankfurt, right after finishing 2018 with three partner hires for its Irish base.
Three years after opening in Düsseldorf, Pinsents announced at the beginning of January it had hired six partners from a range of independent and international firms to spearhead the new German branch.
The list includes KPMG Law co-head of corporate Volker Balda, Dechert M&A partners Markus Friedl and Sven Schulte-Hillen, as well as Hogan Lovells intellectual property partner Nils Rauer.
Pinsents also tapped local independents Oppenhoff & Partners for M&A partner Ronald Meissner and Beiten Burkhardt for real estate specialist Tobias Nuss. The team will initially focus on tech, energy and real estate, before expanding into financial services.
It has been seven years since Pinsents entered Germany with a launch in Munich and the latest hires bring its German headcount to over 100 lawyers, including 38 partners.
Following launches in Dublin, Perth, Madrid and Johannesburg in 2017, Frankfurt caps off a busy period of international growth for the top 15 Legal Business 100 firm, which in the five years to April 2018 grew its top line 45% to £449.8m. In December it added three partners to its Dublin office, launched in 2017 when it became the first UK-based firm to announce an Irish branch after the Brexit referendum.
Bringing the partner headcount in the office up to seven, the trio includes DWF’s former Dublin executive partner and Ireland head of energy and infrastructure, Garrett Monaghan. Kevin Collins joins from Eversheds Sutherland to build out its local property and real estate practice, and banking partner Ann Lalor has arrived from Irish independent Whitney Moore.
‘When we launched in Dublin, the initial focus of the office was on the financial services and technology sectors,’ said office head Gayle Bowen. ‘Our latest hires broaden our local offering to all five of the firm’s global sectors, bringing expertise in energy, infrastructure and real estate.’
Both Frankfurt and Dublin have been on the radar of a growing number of international firms since Britain voted to leave the EU in June 2016. In April last year, Fieldfisher picked Frankfurt as its fourth base in the country alongside Hamburg, Munich and Düsseldorf, hiring capital markets and finance regulatory partner Rüdiger Litten from Norton Rose Fulbright. In March, it became Covington & Burling’s second continental European base after Brussels, as the firm took a six-partner team from Heymann & Partner, including the private equity boutique founder, former Clifford Chance local managing partner Thomas Heymann.
Meanwhile, Pinsents’ Dublin launch was followed by Simmons & Simmons, Lewis Silkin and DLA Piper, with Covington’s counsel Maree Gallagher splitting her time between London and Dublin since September 2017.