Willkie Farr & Gallagher has hired a pair lawyers in Hamburg from rival Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, as it continues a growth push in Germany. 

Quinn’s Hamburg managing partner, Rüdiger Lahme, has moved over alongside counsel Andreas Ruster, who is joining as a partner. Both are litigators with a focus on antitrust cases, and will join the firm on 10 February. The duo practise in Hamburg and will be attached to Willkie’s Frankfurt office, the firm said. 

“Rüdiger and Andreas have significant commercial and antitrust litigation experience which will strengthen our litigation and arbitration practice in Germany,” said Matthias Schrader, a partner in Willkie’s litigation practice group in Germany. “They will also complement the cross-office work of our teams practising across Europe and the US.” 

News of the duo’s hire comes just days after Willkie said it had recruited private equity partner David Huthmacher from Hogan Lovells to boost the Munich office it opened last year.  

Last June the firm also tapped Latham & Watkins in Hamburg for an 11-lawyer bankruptcy and restructuring team, a move it said at the time supported its “steady growth” strategy in Europe and Germany. The latest hires take the firm’s Germany headcount to around 90 lawyers – nearly triple the number it had in 2020. 

Lahme is himself a Latham alumnus, having practised as an associate at the firm for seven years before joining Quinn in 2017. He acts on cases involving abuse of dominance and damages actions and has experience on both the claimant and defendant side. 

At Quinn Emanuel he advised Daimler AG on antitrust damages claims and led the round timber cartel litigation complex against five federal German states, one of the most significant cartel damages cases in the country’s history. 

Ruster also joined Quinn Emanuel in 2017 from Latham and brings experience acting on both the claimant and defendant side. Alongside antitrust litigation, he also acts in commercial, corporate, restructuring, technology and IP disputes.

A spokesperson for Quinn Emanuel commented: “We wish Rüdiger and the team well.”

Other international firms making moves in Germany recently include Greenberg Traurig, which opened its second office in the country, in Munich, at the start of this month with lawyers hired from McDermott Will & Emery and boutique Ehlers. 

Last month Herbert Smith Freehills hired a 10-lawyer corporate team in Düsseldorf from Orrick led by Oliver Duys, who spent more than a decade as Orrick’s Germany managing partner, while last August Kirkland & Ellis hired senior corporate partner Tobias Larisch from Latham & Watkins to open an office in Frankfurt.