US firm Fried Frank Harris Shriver & Jacobson has hired a quintet of financial services lawyers from Wall Street rival Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft to bolster its finance teams in New York and Washington.

The new arrivals include partners Ray Shirazi, Steven Lofchie, Dorothy Mehta, Nihal Patel and Jason Schwartz who bring with them a range of financial regulation, fund formation, broker-dealer and transaction-related experience. Schwarz will be based in Washington while the other four will be based in New York.

They will be joined by 15 other lawyers and 15 business services professionals over the coming weeks the Financial Times reported today. 

David Greenwald, Fried Frank’s chairman, said: “This is an exciting move for us both in terms of expanding the scope of our practices and increasing our strength in core areas. The group strengthens our global financial services offering and also will bring valuable regulatory expertise to our existing practices.”

Shirazi’s practice focuses on derivatives and financial products, advising banks, asset managers, hedge funds and mutual funds on deal-related and trading regulatory issues. He is joined by Lofchie, who spent 15 years in Cadwalader’s New York financial services department, where he specialised in advising broker-dealers on regulatory issues. Prior to joining Cadwalader he spent 12 years as a partner at Davis Polk & Wardwell and five years as an associate at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton.

Mehta, meantime, was at Cadwalader since 2004, becoming special counsel in 2013 and then partner in 2016. Her experience spans the structuring, formation and operation of investment funds, advising US and non-US investment advisers, family offices and wealth managers. She started her career at Sullivan & Cromwell.

Patel is a regulatory and compliance lawyer advising financial institutions and buy-side firms on securities and derivatives trading, while Schwartz advises banks, funds and insurers on tax issues related to financial transactions such as catastrophe bonds, collateralised loan obligations and other securitisations.

Steven Scheinfeld, corporate partner and global chair of Fried Frank’s corporate department, said: “Each of these accomplished individuals will bring with them a wealth of experience that will complement the innovative solutions we provide to our clients.”

The new arrivals add to recent hires by Fried Frank including New York-based asset management partner Rami Turayhi who joined in November from McDermott Will & Emery, capital markets partner Brian Hecht who joined in September from Katten Muchin Rosenman and banking regulatory practice head Joseph Vitale, who also joined in September from Schulte Roth & Zabel.

In January the firm also opened an office in Brussels to realign its European regulatory offering in the wake of Brexit.

A Cadwalader spokesperson commented: “We wish our former colleagues well. We remain focused, as always, on growing our firm in careful alignment with the needs of our clients, and providing them with exceptional service. This approach has yielded success for both our clients and our firm, across transactional and other practices, and we see that trend line of growth continuing.”

For its part Cadwalader announced today that finance partner Matthew Smith and restructuring and special situations partner Bevis Metcalfe are set to join its leveraged finance and private credit team in London in April, with the duo moving over from Baker McKenzie.

Smith principally advises lenders and private equity sponsors on European leveraged finance transactions, while Metcalfe’s practice focuses on complex cross-border restructuring matters and special situations financings, with a particular emphasis on representing private investment funds.