In and out

United Kingdom

Alex Woodfield (pictured) has joined the partnership of international legal practice SJ Berwin in the corporate group of the firm’s headquarters London office. Mr Woodfield joins from rival London firm Field Fisher Waterhouse, where he founded the dedicated CIS group of 12 lawyers, working for Russian, Kazakh and Ukrainian-origin clients.
He specialises in high value mergers and acquisitions, as well as energy and natural resources projects. He has previously acted for Alisher Usmanov, JSC KazMunaiGas EP and Samruk-Kazyna.
Meanwhile, Olswang has bolstered its life sciences practice with the arrival of patent expert Andrew Farquharson to its London office as a consultant. Mr Farquharson was previously part of the global biological patent team at pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca, gaining experience in patent procurement, protection and opposition, as well as litigation in both Europe and the US. Mr Farquharson has also negotiated intellectual property strategies for collaborations in the biopharmaceutical sector, and also managed issues regarding AstraZeneca’s acquisitions of CAT and MedImmune.
New York-headquartered law firm Simpson Thatcher & Bartlett has recruited Derek Baird as a partner in the firm’s London corporate practice. Mr Baird is currently the global co-head of magic circle firm Allen & Overy’s private equity sector group. He specialises in mergers and acquisitions and has represented several leading private equity firms on domestic and cross-border leveraged buyouts, public-to-private transactions and exits.
Long-time Berrymans Lace Mawer partner Simon Hilditch is to join the London office of international law firm Simmons & Simmons. He joins as a partner in the firm’s insurance litigation group. Mr Hilditch focuses on defending UK and international claims against insurers and insureds in the financial institutions, directors and officers liability insurance as well as other professional liability insurance work. He also has experience of handling contentious and non-contentious insurance and reinsurance-related issues both in the UK and overseas.

Europe

Nordic region firms Simonsen and Vogt & Wiig are to merge, creating the third largest law legal practice in Norway after Wikborg Rein and Thommessen. The deal will see Simonsen’s 95 lawyers join more than 80 counterparts from Vogt & Wiig from the beginning of next year, reports the magazine Top Legal International. The merged firm will be headquartered in Oslo with offices in Bergen, Kristiansand, Stavanger, Trondheim and Tromsø as well as Singapore, and will rebrand as Simonsen Vogt Wiig. Current Simonsen chairwoman Mona Søyland will become the firm’s managing partner, while Vogt & Wiig managing partner Frithjof Herlofsen will become the combined firm’s chairman.