Covington boosts UK with double partner expansion

Covington & Burling has bolstered its London arm with a double partner hire.

The firm has brought in Daniel Pavin from Taylor Wessing as a partner for its European life sciences practice, while Gaetan Verhoosel joins the international arbitration group from the London arm of Debevoise & Plimpton.

Pavin, who was a partner at Taylor Wessing, is a transactional life sciences lawyer advising on commercial partnership and collaboration agreements, as well as the intellectual property (IP) aspects of M&A deals.

Verhoosel, who was an international counsel, focuses on large commercial and investment treaty arbitrations across the oil and gas, energy and infrastructure industries. Joining with Verhoosel from Debevoise is associate Carmen Martinez Lopez.

Timothy Hester, chairman of Covington's management committee, said: "Both these additions show that we are focused on bringing in people that fit in with our strategic objectives. We will continue to look opportunistically at the market but we have achieved what we set out to do in London this year."

The latest additions to the London office come a year after the firm brought in Mike Kingston from Herbert Smith to head up its European corporate practice and bring the number of partners in London to 17.

In addition to the partner moves, Covington has made a number of counsel appointments in London, including Stephen Bond, who joined as a senior counsel from White & Case where he was co-head of the international arbitration practice. Meanwhile, February saw a boost to the IP practice at Covington with the hire of counsel Morag Peberdy from Herbert Smith.

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