Bates Wells & Braithwaite and Forsters have hired well-known partners from Addleshaw Goddard and Withers respectively.
Bates Wells, which is best-known for charity work, has moved to break into media litigation with the hire of respected duo Rupert Earle and Martin Kramer from Addleshaws.
Earle, who has been a partner at Addleshaws for 10 years, joins Bates Wells’
Between them, the pair have acted for a number of major clients including the Advertising Standards Authority, Times Newspapers, Express Newspapers and Northern & Shell.
Kramer has also taken headline roles on several of the most high-profile media litigation cases in recent memory, including the Spycatcher litigation over the controversial memoirs of Peter Wright, and for Catherine Zeta-Jones, Michael Douglas and OK! against Hello! magazine in the A-list couple’s court battle for the rights to their wedding photographs.
The hires mark Bates Wells’ first inroads into a programme of expansion designed to help the firm branch out from its traditional charity law markets and cash in on the commercial sector.
Meanwhile, Forsters has lured former private client chief Charles Pike and senior US-based lawyer Patrick Harney from Withers as part of a concerted drive to double the size of its
Pike, who joins the 31-partner
Tax planning specialist Harney, who was a senior associate in Withers’
Forsters managing partner Paul Roberts commented: “
