Europe

Italian law firm Legance has confirmed its intention to strengthen key areas with the appointment of two partners, Rosella Antonucci and Silvia Tozzoli.
Ms Antonlucci is a specialist in the banking, finance and project financing sectors, while Ms Tozzoli is an expert in employment law and industrial relations.
US practice King & Spalding has taken on Axel Schilder as partner at the Atlanta-based firm’s Frankfurt office. The newspaper Legal Week points out that the move is the second lateral partner hire for the office in 2012, following Jan Schaefer’s January move from Allen & Overy.
Mr Schilder, formally of Beiten Burkhardt, Allen & Overy and Paul Hastings Janofsky & Walker, becomes the sixth partner at the office.

Luxembourg firm OPF Partners has promoted Christel Dumont and Yann Hilpert to its partnership. Ms Dumont becomes a partner in the civil and commercial and real estate practices. She is also specialises in restructuring and insolvency matters. Mr Hilpert is a banking and finance expert, specialising in leveraged finance, securitisations, aircraft and shipping finance as well Islamic finance.

Houston-based global law firm Baker Botts has recruited Melinda Rishkofski from Baring Vostok Capital Partners to be a partner in the US firm’s Moscow office. Legal Week reports that she has represented private equity fund managers, international financial institutions and portfolio companies, and has worked on regulatory and legislative matters with representatives of the US and Russian governments.

Elsewhere in Russia, Jeff Brown has been appointed international counsel in the Moscow office of US law firm Chadbourne & Parke.

Thomas Margenet-Baudry has made partner in the corporate department of Latham & Watkins’s Paris office. While in Italy, another financing lawyer, Lorenzo Vernetti, has been promoted to the firm’s partnership in Milan.

Dana Anagnostou and Julien Martinet have been made partners at the Paris office of US firm Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel.

United Kingdom

Anand Damodaran has been snapped up by global law firm Ropes & Gray to head up the Boston-based firm’s new private funds practice in London, according to Legal Week.
A former senior associate at fellow US global practice White & Case, Mr Damodaran will join Ropes alongside another recent recruit and former colleague Mathew Judd, who has experience of advising on private equity, real estate and hedge funds.

Leading UK national law firm Irwin Mitchell has announced appointed Jayne Schnider to its London corporate real estate department. She joins from international law firm Taylor Wessing where she was a corporate partner.
Experienced in corporate real estate transactions, Ms Schnider also deals with mid-market private equity transactions.

Rapidly growing regional law firm DWF has reappointed managing partner Andrew Leaitherland to another three-year term after he ran unopposed for the post, according to The Lawyer newspaper. Mr Leaitherland, who has been in charge since 2006, has seen the Liverpool-headquartered firm’s turnover more than double under his leadership, with net profit increasing from £6million to £20m.

Meanwhile, German firm Luther has recruited Tobias Verlende to become head of its recently opened London office. He will join Luther from fellow German firm Brinkmann & Partner, where he headed the London base for three years.
Hans-Georg Hahn,
The London office adds to Luther’s existing international network, which includes Singapore, Shanghai and Luxembourg.

Philadelphia-based law firm Dechert also has plans for its London office with the announcement that employment partner Jason Butwick will take the position of managing partner. Mr Butwick, who has been with the firm since 1994 and made partner in 2000, will take up his new role at the end of this month, according to London based Legal Week newspaper. He replaces longstanding London head Steven Fogel, who is stepping down from the firm’s partnership.

North America

Thomson Reuters reports that Anglo-US global law firm DLA Piper has recruited Wesley Nissen and Edward Johnson as partners. They join from Chicago-based firm Winston & Strawn where they were both financial services attorneys. Mr Nissen will join DLA’s Chicago office, while Mr Johnson moves to New York. DLA has also pinched Kathleen Ruhland from fellow US firm Faegre Baker Daniels, where she was co-chair of international practice. She joins DLA’s Minneapolis office.

London-based magic circle firm Allen & Overy has appointed financial services lawyer Serena Wille as senior counsel at its Washington office. She leaves US firm Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale & Dorr, where she was counsel, according to the web site AmLaw Daily. Ms Wille advises banks, broker-dealers, mutual funds, investment advisers, and others on issues related to the US Bank Secrecy Act and to sanctions imposed by the Office of Foreign Assets Control.

International law firm Katten Muchin Rosenman has been very busy, according to US magazine The Deal. Noah Leichtling has been recruited to Katten’s New York corporate practice department; Elizabeth Camacho and Allan Abshez join the real estate practice in Los Angeles; and white-collar crime specialist David Kettel has also joined Katten in Los Angles.

Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel has appointed Mark Baghdassarian and Joshua Brody as partners in the firm’s New York headquarters.

Los Angeles-based Latham & Watkins has appointed environmental lawyer Karl Karg to the partnership in the in the environment, land and resources department at the firm’s Chicago office. He is a former associate regional counsel for the US Environmental Protection Agency and specialises in a wide range of environmental regulatory areas.

At Chadbourne & Parke’s global headquarters in New York, Daniel Scott, Joseph Giannini and Kessar Nashat have all been promoted to Counsel.

George Seward, Honorary Life President of the International Bar Association and founding partner of New York and Washington law firm Seward & Kissel, has died at the age of 101. Current IBA Executive Director, Mark Ellis, said: ‘George Seward was responsible for moving the IBA into the modern age. His legacy is the creation of an organisation that has become the pre-eminent international legal association in the world.’

East and South-East Asia

London-based international law firm Simmons & Simmons has continues to expand in China with the addition of Yongmei Evers Cai as Financial Markets partner in the Beijing office. Formally of King & Wood, Ms Yongmei is an expert in advising international and Chinese institutions in banking, cross-border finance derivatives, debt capital markets and real estate finance work.

Legal Week reports that London-based international firm Clyde & Co has poached Lynia Lau to be a partner at its Hong Kong office from Australian firm Mallesons Stephen Jacques.

Bangkok-based law firm Tilleke & Gibbins has snapped up intellectual property specialists Loc Xuan Le and Linh Duy Mai. Asian Legal Business reports that the two lawyers, previously at Hanoi firm Pham & Associates, will remain in Vietnam at one of Tilleke’s offices - either Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh City. The move marks attempts by Tilleke to boost its Vietnam IP practice.

Elsewhere in the region, London-based firm Reynolds Porter Chamberlain has relocated legal director Jeremy Hewitt to its new Singapore office.
The office was opened on 1 November last year with Mark Errington as head.

In Shanghai, capital markets lawyer Karen Yan has been boosted up the Latham & Watkins ladder to the partnership. Latham bills Ms Yan -- a former in-house counsel at a leading US energy company – as having extensive knowledge of renewable energy sectors.

South America

US firm Holland & Knight have announced its intention to open an office in Columbian capital Bogota, joining Chicago’s Baker & McKenzie as the only other major law firm with US roots to have an outpost in the country.
Enrique Gomez-Pinzon, cross-border transactions specialist and partner at Holland & Knight’s Washington office, will head the new base.

Alejandro Landa and Daniel Spencer have been made international partners in Mexico City and Sao Paulo respectively for New York-based law firm Chadbourne & Parke.

Middle East

New York law firm Curtis Mallet-Prevost Colt & Mosle has hired former SNR Denton partner David Pfeiffer to head its new Kuwait office. Mr Pfeiffer has more than 16 years’ experience in the oil-rich country, according to The Am Law Daily. He left SNR Denton last autumn after the firm overhauled its Middle East management and strategy.
Local law firm Mashora Advocates & Legal Consultants will be associated with the new office. The New Yorkers already have a Gulf presence with offices in Oman and Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.