BLP boosts finance investment with Sidley Austin partner hire

Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP) has hired structured finance partner Richard Hughes from the London arm of Sidley Austin to boost its finance team.

Hughes joined BLP last week after five years as a partner in the US law firm's City securitisation team.

He takes the partner headcount in BLP's London banking and capital markets practice to 16 and will advise on structured finance, securitisation, asset finance and property finance matters.

Hughes joined Sidley as a partner in 2004 in a high-profile move from Linklaters. His departure marks the second senior move from Sidley's London finance team in the last 18 months, after Olswang picked up acquisition and real estate finance partner Steve Clark in December 2007. Clark had joined Sidley in 2005, shortly after Hughes.

Hughes told Legal Week: "BLP is a broad church. It is entrepreneurial and business-driven and Neville [Eisenberg] is showing great vision. It is a firm that is prepared to take advantage of the shake-up the market has recently taken by getting strong people in areas they want to be strong in."

For BLP, the hire is the latest in a string of appointments for the City firm. It marks the third partner hire for the finance practice alone this year, following the January appointment of real estate finance duo Jayne Black and Eleanor Hunwicks from Katten Muchin Rosenman Cornish.

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