Category: On the Move

Field Fisher Waterhouse has strengthened its Finance group with the hire of Partner Philip Abbott from Simmons & Simmons.

He will join the firm at the end of March. Abbott is a Banking/Finance lawyer with a strong focus on funds finance, real estate finance, and restructurings. His experience of fund finance has seen him advise on equity bridge facilities, NAV base lending in the hedge fund sector as well as more traditional lending to and from funds.

Abbott’s practice has a significant focus on the emerging markets, in particular Libya, Turkey and the Middle East. He advises a wide range of clients, and while his primary focus is on lenders – including German banks, investment banks and the commercial banks – he also acts for hedge funds, real estate funds and corporate borrowers.

Abbott has been with Simmons and Simmons since 2003. The bulk of his time with the firm has been spent as a partner in its London Finance practice, with an interlude in its Dubai office as the head of regional finance for the Middle East from 2008 – 2010. Prior to joining Simmons and Simmons, he was an associate with Allen & Overy and qualified in 1996.

Field Fisher Waterhouse Managing Partner Michael Chissick said: “The addition of a senior partner such as Philip to our Finance group is a great addition to an already strong team. We have made a number of lateral hires into the group over the past 12 months, and with Philip’s arrival we feel that we are in a better position than ever to service our clients’ needs. The breadth of his experience, in particular his work in the emerging markets, makes him a good fit for the group.” 

Wolf Theiss has hired Hubert Beykirch to become the firm’s new Head of Human Resources during the maternity leave of former Human Resources Manager Barbara Stimpfl-Abele.

Beykirch has spent the past several years in Frankfurt as Head of HR Germany at Linklaters, where his projects included the development and implementation of a new career website.  At Linklaters Beykirch was also a member of the Management Team and part of the international HR-Leadership Team.

Beykirch, who is German, also has previous experience as HR Manager and Operational HR Leader Germany at PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Erik Steger, Management Board Speaker at Wolf Theiss, said that, “With 20 years experience, including at a Magic Circle firm, Mr. Beykirch is a very valuable addition for our team. We are delighted to welcome him to Wolf Theiss and wish Mrs Stimpfl-Abele all the best for her maternity leave.”

Four law firms in CEE have joined 11 other firms around the world in launching a new global alliance of firms with specialty practices in employee benefits, executive compensation, tax, employment, and labor law.

Karanovic & Nikolic (with offices in Bosnia, Croatia, Serbia, Macedonia, and Montenegro), PRK Partners (in the Czech Republic), LAWIN (in Latvia), and Wardynski & Partners (in Poland) join 11 other firms in the new alliance.

The BECTELLA alliance was conceived and founded by King & Spalding Partner Kenneth Raskin. King & Spalding released a statement asserting that “the alliance is intended to be a resource to provide participating law firms’ clients with access to a worldwide network of lawyers who are experts in the alliance’s specialized practices and to enable participating firms to market their expertise on a global basis.”

At the moment, BECTELLA includes firms in 20 countries across five continents, with broader coverage expected in the future. Participation in the alliance is by invitation only.

Schoenherr is expanding its office in Brussels and transforming it from a representative to a full-fledged operational office.

As announced previously Schoenherr Partner Volker Weiss will head the office. Weiss specializes in Competition Law, and the Brussels office will focus on EU and Competition matters as well, particularly on matters with CEE impact.

Schoenherr has been present with a representative office in Brussels since late 1994, coinciding with Austria’s accession to the EU. In a statement released today, the firm asserted that its move to now launch a fully-fledged Brussels office “reflects the considerable growth of the firm in the CEE region and the growing importance of EU law and Competition law matters to the firm’s clients situated there.”

“We want to bring CEE closer to Brussels – and Brussels closer to CEE,” Weiss stated. “We see a lot of market potential in advising companies in those countries which have recently acceded to the EU or are set to do so. Our clients will benefit from our presence in Brussels. This is a move planned and achieved together with the colleagues of our competition practice group in CEE. To this end, we are integrating members from our CEE-based EU & Competition teams, some of whom will also relocate to Brussels.”

Dentons announced that Partner Pawel Debowski has been appointed to co-chair the Dentons Global Real Estate Group in Europe with Partner Eric Rosedale.

Debowski joined Dentons (formerly Salans) with his team in 2010 from Clifford Chance. He specializes in real estate finance and investment issues and was involved in structuring early real estate investments in Poland as well as working for key developers on the Polish real estate market.

Debowski and Rosedale will co-chair the European team of what is now one of the largest real estate groups amongst leading international law firms, with more than 600 members.

“Pawel has a tremendous following inside and outside of Poland and has the experience and relationships that will help Dentons continue to grow its profile and position throughout Western and Eastern Europe,” commented Rosendale.

Dentons today announced the election of a new Chairman and Board in Europe. Evan Lazar, Partner in the firm’s Prague office, was elected Chairman of its European Board. Joining Lazar on the Board are Partners Oleg Batyuk, Tomasz Dabrowski, John Flanigan, Dariusz Oleszczuk, and Andreas Ziegenhagen.

The Board focuses on setting the region’s strategy, meeting and anticipating clients’ needs, and building the firm’s brand following the March 2013 combination of Salans, FMC and SNR Denton.

Lazar, an existing member of the European Board and Dentons’ Global Board, was elected with unanimous support. He succeeds Francois Chateau, the former Chairman of the European Board and the Global Vice Chair of Dentons. Lazar played an instrumental role in the 2013 Dentons combination.

Of his election to Chairman, Lazar issued a statement that, “my goal is for the firm to continue to challenge and exceed the other global elite law firms by providing the highest quality legal services and upholding our well-deserved reputation for providing valued advice to a broad spectrum of clients.”

Schoenherr has extended equity to Volker Weiss, a Partner in the firm’s EU & Competition practice.

Weiss, whose practice focuses on European and Austrian competition law, will become an equity partner as of 1 February 2014, the start of the firm’s financial year. At the same time, Volker Weiss will become resident in Belgium to lead Schoenherr’s expanded offering of EU law and Competition law advisory via its Brussels office.

Weiss, who was admitted to the bar in Austria in 2005, is an EU and Competition law expert, focusing particularly on the banking, insurance, construction, retail and travel industries. He started his post-traineeship career at Linklaters in Brussels from 2000, before joining Schoenherr in 2003. In 2008 he was promoted to Partner and invited to assume responsibility for the firm’s Brussels office.

The agreement on association and cooperation entered into by the Croatian Versic Marusic Law Office with the Slovenian Mrva Law Firm has been approved by the Croatian Bar Association.

According to Versic Marusic, “this is a further step in our expansion of regional cooperation, enabling our clients, while acting in one jurisdiction, to get simultaneous legal support easily and efficiently in all four countries of the region (Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Slovenia).

Richards Kibbe & Orbe announced today that its London office has added Partner Denise Hamer to strengthen the firm’s corporate practice.

Hamer’s practice concentrates on finance, distressed debt, financial restructuring, and special situations, with a particular focus on developing markets.  She moves to RKO from Central European law firm Schoenherr, where she was a banking and finance partner. 

Hamer has more than two decades of practice in Central and Eastern Europe, including Russia, and she has held senior positions with banks Societe Generale, Citigroup, and BAWAG. She has represented financial institutions, investment banks, funds, supranationals and corporates in a multitude of domestic and cross-border matters, including contentious and non-contentious restructurings and the sale and acquisition of performing and non-performing assets and portfolios.

David Shasha, formerly a Partner in the London office of Canadian firm Gowlings, has agreed to join Watson, Farley & Williams as a Senior Consultant. 

At Gowlings Shasha headed up the Energy, Infrastructure and Mining group for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. His particular expertise involves corporate and project transactions in the energy and natural resources sector, as well advising clients on privatizations, mergers & acquisitions, and international joint ventures as well as public and private offerings.

Prior to joining the London office of Gowlings in 2010, David was a partner at Simmons & Simmons for eight years (where he headed the firm’s Energy & Infrastructure practice) following a 23-year career at Clifford Chance, in which he lived and practiced in several CEE hubs.

Shasha stated that “I am very pleased to be joining WFW’s Corporate group, [as] it offers me a fantastic international platform to service clients and the potential opportunities are very exciting indeed.”