In and out

UK

Kevin Francis Lloyd is to join New York-based law firm Debevoise & Plimpton in 2013 as a partner in the firm’s London office. Mr Lloyd is currently a senior partner in the commercial litigation group at Herbert Smith Freehills and has commercial litigation experience across a full complement of industries and geographies, including financial services institutions and multinational corporations. He joins Debevoise’s London litigation practice, led by England’s former Attorney General,
Lord Peter Goldsmith QC.
London law firm Ince & Co appointed Richard Britain as a corporate insurance partner. Mr Britain has more than 20 years’ experience as a corporate transactional lawyer in the insurance and financial services sectors, and becomes head of the firm’s corporate insurance team. He is the firm’s fifth new insurance partner in the last 18 months.
Manches has beefed up its technology team with the recruitment of Jonathan Snade from fellow London-based law firm Pinsent Masons. The appointment follows the arrival of commercial technology partner, Jonathan Bartley, to Manches' London office in July.
A leading corporate team is set to join London law firm Reynolds Porter Chamberlain, the firm announced. Richard Haywood, Maurice Dwyer and David Marshall all join as partners from Wragge & Co’s London office. Mr Haywood – formerly Wragge’s managing partner and also previously head of corporate – is an international mergers and acquisitions lawyer, acting as a relationship partner to many large corporates. Mr Dwyer is Wragge’s current head of corporate. He is an international corporate finance lawyer with more than 25 years’ experience, particularly in the healthcare, aerospace and private equity sectors. Mr Marshall joined Wragge as a partner from Travers Smith in 2010, where he trained. He advises institutional investors, corporates and management teams on the full range of M&A activity.
New York’s Weil Gotshal & Manges has snapped up US securities expert Gil Strauss for its London-based European finance practice. Mr Strauss joins from magic circle firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer. He trained at Simpson Thacher in New York and has represented underwriters, private equity sponsors and issuers in high yield bond offerings, restructurings, initial public offerings and other corporate finance transactions.

US

New York-founded law firm Jackson Lewis elected Vincent Cino as chairman, effective the beginning of next month. He replaces Patrick Vaccaro, who has been in the top seat since 2006 and will continue as a partner. During Mr Vaccaro’s reign, the firm entered the AmLaw 100 and Global 100 rankings.

Europe

Nordic law firm Roschier has recruited tax specialist Daniel Jilkén, a former partner at Skeppsbron Skatt, to its partnership and to head the firm’s recently launched tax and corporate structuring practice in Sweden. Mr Jilkén has extensive experience working with domestic and international companies on complex tax and structuring matters. He joins Roschier from the independent tax advisory firm Skeppsbron Skatt, where he has been a partner since 2008, focussing on transactions, as well as been responsible for establishing the firm’s EU tax practice. The firm has made several other specialist recruitments this year, including specialist intellectual property and life science lawyer Håkan Sterner from AstraZeneca in October, followed by the joining of finance and regulatory specialist Dan Hanqvist from Vinge.
Leading German law firm Gleiss Lutz appointed a clutch of partners recently, including Andrea Leufgen (dispute resolution/Frankfurt), Eric Wagner (dispute resolution/Stuttgart) and Johann Wagner (tax/Hamburg), taking the overall partner count to 89.
Italian employment law specialist legal practice Lablaw announced its expansion into Naples through a partnership with the firm Fontana, which is headed by Professor Giorgio Fontana. Fontana was founded in Naples and Avellino in 1984 and is well known for employment work and trade union issues.

Benelux law firm Stibbe has promoted four lawyers to its partnership, reports Top Legal International. They are: Judica Krikke (technology and media, Amsetrdam), Eva Das (corporate mergers and acquisitions, Amsterdam), Matthijs Kuipers (litigation), and Jérôme Aubertin (employment, Brussels). All the appointments are effective from the beginning of next month and take the Stibbe partnership to 72.

Office opening

French law firm De Gaulle Fleurance & Associés has opened an office in Brussels following three lateral hires, reports Top Legal International. The new partners -- Jean-Paul Hordies, Geoffroy de Foestraets and Bruno Lebrun – will launch the firm’s new European law and EU litigation practice. Mr Hordies and Mr de Foestraets both join De Gaulle Fleurance from Belgian independent law firm Koan where they were partners. Mr Lebrun was a competition partner at French firm UGGC, which he joined in 2010 from Latham & Watkins.