Singapore

Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP has appointed former Hogan Lovells partner and Southeast Asia head of oil, gas and energy Brad Roach as partner. Mr Roach joins the Singapore office as its fourth partner and will continue practising energy, infrastructure and project finance. According to Legalweek, this is Gibson Dunn’s first appointment since receiving a Qualifying Foreign Law Practice (QFLP) licence in February. With over 15 years of experience living in Singapore, the firm is making confident strides towards strengthening the global capacity for its energy practice with the addition of experienced gas and oil specialist Mr Roach.

France

Six months after losing three partners and two lawyers in their capital markets team to White & Case, Linklaters is bouncing back with the hire of capital markets partner Bertrand Sénéchal for its Paris practice. Joining in September from Shearman, where he has been a partner since 2005, Mr Sénéchal advises on equity, equity linked and debt capital markets. Together with the recent promotion of lawyer Véronique Delaittre he will take Linklaters’ Paris capital markets team up to six partners.

Ireland

Irish law firm A&L Goodbody has hired one of its former associates, Elaine Keane, who left in 2008 for Maples and Calder and was last year promoted to partner. Now moving back to A&L Goodbody, Ms Keane becomes the 18th new partner for the firm in the last 18 months, and will join the funds team.

UK

London -based law firm Olswang has appointed Bernard O’Sullivan, a former senior partner at Byrne and Partners LLP, to join the commercial litigation team as partner to boost the firm’s practice in regulatory and fraud investigations. Mr O’Sullivan’s recent acquisition of a £425 million freezing order against the Russian state oil company Rosneft is one of his latest deals. He will join the firm in November 2013.

International law firm Stephenson Harwood has added an asset finance partner to its London office. Finance and asset specialist Lisa Marks joins after eight years as a partner at Berwin Leighton Paisner. Ms Marks has many years of experience in asset finance and her clients include a range of banks and financial institutions. She is also the first lawyer to hold the post of Governor of the organisation The Leasing Foundation.

Not long after launching a consultancy service for employment law and human resources, titled The People Pool, DAC Beachcroft has now appointed two new partners to its London office to bolster its corporate insurance and health real estate teams, the Lawyer reports. Swiss Re’s EMEA general counsel Adrian Williams, a corporate insurance law and prudential regulation specialist, has been made partner to meet client demand for corporate and commercial advice. Nathan East, a former partner at Hempsons who trained at Baker & McKenzie, is a specialist in advising the medical profession in addition to charities and social enterprises. He specialises in commercial real estate in the health sector.

Texas-based Vinson & Elkins has made a key hire for its International Dispute Resolution practice in London with George Burn as international arbitration partner, an experienced international arbitration advocate who joins from Dentons. Prior to Dentons Mr Burn was head of Salan’s UK International Arbitration practice.

USA

Chicago’s oldest law firm, Winston & Strawn LLP, has appointed six lawyers and three associates to its labour and employment practice in Los Angeles, all from Norton Rose Fulbright LLP, reports Bloomberg Law. Marcus Torrano, Michael Chamberlin and Julie Capell will join the firm’s internationally recognised practice as partners. Mr Torrano will become co-chairman of the firm’s LA practice, as the former head of the labour and employment practice at Norton Rose Fulbright in LA.

Former Jones Day partner Jimmy Vallee has joined global law firm Paul Hastings LLP as partner at its mergers and acquisitions practice in Houston, Texas. Mr Vallee’s appointment follows the arrival earlier in the year of three energy-focused transactional partners to the newly opened Houston practice, and the LA-based firm hopes that his wide range of experience working with domestic and international energy companies in oil and gas exploration and production (E&P) will strengthen the capabilities of its energy team.

India

Linklaters has hired a former trainee, Narayan Iyer, who is currently a Talwar Thakore & Associates partner in Mumbai, to join the firm’s India practice next month. As a founding member of Linklater’s India practice, Mr Iyer became partner in 2007 and left the firm for TT&A in 2009. He now rejoins the firm and will be based in London working alongside Sandeep Katwala and Savi Hebbur to strengthen the firm’s India finance capability.

Australia

Managing director at intellectual property boutique Aracadia Lawyers, Virginia Beniac-Brooks, has been appointed as a partner in the Melbourne office of international patent and trademark law firm Marks & Clerk, the firm’s fourth new Melbourne-based partner since the office opened in 2011, Lawyers Weekly reports. A registered Australian and New Zealand patent and trade mark attorney and member of the Law Institute of Victoria, Ms Beniac-Brooks specialises in biochemistry and the prosecution and litigation of patents and trademarks.

Western Australian independent law firm Jackson McDonald has announced the appointment of a new CEO. Malcom Shelton-Agar, former COO of Singapore law firm Allen & Gledhill, will take over from inaugural CEO John McLean after 14 years of management. Mr Shelton-Agar was previously managing partner and managing director of law firm DLA Phillips Fox. Partners chair Richard Sandover praised the leadership of Mr McLean and said he looks forward to continuing to grow the firm under Mr Shelton-Agar, whose ‘extensive legal management experience, both national and regional, is perfectly suited to the role.’