Hunton & Williams is set to transfer two senior US partners to its London office in a bid to strengthen the firm’s position in the UK capital.
The relocation of New York corporate partner Jerry Whitson and energy partner Ferdinand Calice mark a departure for the firm, which until now has had only one US lawyer in its City base - energy partner Raul Grable.
The move, which is intended to improve relationships with international clients, comes as London insolvency partner Mark Fennessey quits to join US rival Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe.
Whitson is a regular adviser to Philip Morris International, which was spun off from Altria in a deal worth $113bn (£57.2bn) earlier this year. With the tobacco company’s international operations based in Lausanne, Switzerland, Whitson will divide his time between London and New York to be closer to his client.
Calice, meanwhile, will beef up a City energy team that already includes partners Grable, John Deacon and Matthew Williams.
Whitson and Calice will take the number of partners in Hunton’s City office to 14, excluding Fennessey. They will help broaden the practice, which has been heavily exposed to London’s Alternative Investment Market through past hires that included ex-Hammonds partner Martin Thomas, now European managing partner at Hunton.
The moves follow the hire of former Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer finance head Roger Dyer earlier this year and outsourcing partner Peter Brudenall, who joined from Simmons & Simmons last summer. The firm is also set to bring in a real estate partner from a City firm within the next few weeks.
Williams told Legal Week: “We will take a measured approach but recognise that to be a credible commercial success you need a critical mass. I imagine that we want to be somewhere between 60 and 70 fee earners to reach that point.”
Though Hunton (pictured) has been operating in London since 1999, it has only been practising UK law since 2004, when the firm set about building a domestic practice with hires including Thomas.
Commenting on Fennessey’s departure, Thomas said: “Our corporate restructuring practice has significant capability in London under Roger Dyer’s leadership. We are strategically expanding our capability and we hope to announce that another leading lawyer in the area will be joining soon.”
