The team, poached from Rockefeller Plaza-headquartered Chadbourne & Parke, has a strong reputation for product liability and cross-border litigation work. It includes New-York based partners Gregory Loss, David Wallace, Allison Alcasabas, Joseph Falcone, and Thomas Riley, who is head of Chadbourne’s litigation team, as well as US-qualified Philip Pfeffer, who is based in London.

Herbert Smith’s New York office will focus solely on disputes work, progressing from an initial emphasis on advising international clients with US litigation issues to services including cross-border investigations, international arbitrations, and cross-border litigation for network clients. The team will be joined by international arbitration partner Chris Parker, who is relocating to New York from London.

Senior partner Jonathan Scott said: ‘We have recruited a very high calibre team whose reputation will allow us to hit the ground running in New York.’ He described the team as providing ‘a very strong platform on which to achieve our objective of building a leading cross-border disputes practice in New York’.

A spokesperson for Chadbourne & Parke told The Lawyer newspaper that ‘we regret their decision to leave but understand their business justifications for doing so.’