GTM brought in 15 new partners in 2009, leading US firm hires in the City

Survey reveals US firm hiring trends in 2009 with GTM responsible for a quarter of hires

Greenberg Traurig Maher (GTM) emerged as the most active US law firm in London in terms of lateral partner hiring last year, with the new City entrant responsible for a quarter of all partner-level hiring activity.

Legal Week's annual survey of hiring trends at the City operations of 37 of the biggest US and transatlantic firms in 2009 found the firm brought in 15 partners between its launch in July, with a team from Mayer Brown led by Paul Maher, and the end of 2009. In addition to hiring five partners from Mayer Brown, GTM turned to firms including White & Case and Kirkland & Ellis to bolster its ranks.

West coast firm Paul Hastings Janofsky & Walker was the next busiest for lateral partner hiring thanks to its high-profile January hire of a seven-partner team from Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft, including then office head Michelle Duncan.

Mayer Brown and Reed Smith hired five new partners apiece, which put them next in line in the rankings despite the fact the tallies are down on 2008 for both firms, when Mayer Brown brought in 10 partners and Reed Smith seven.

The dips are in line with overall hiring trends across the firms, where there were just 59 lateral partner moves across the whole of 2009, down from 77 in 2008.

Expansionist firms were very much in the minority, with 15 of the 37 US firms surveyed not bringing in any partners and a further 12 making just one hire.

GTM London head Paul Maher (pictured) commented: "Last year the market was economically tough, but for a new entrant like us we probably hit it at the right time. We offer something different and there are quite a few people looking for that."

The survey found that Mayer Brown had the largest partnership in the City despite reducing its numbers from 111 in 2009 to 100 at the start of this year. White & Case cut its partnership by 10 in 2009 while McDermott Will & Emery had 29 partners at 1 January - six fewer than the previous year.

For more, see US firms scale back City recruitment as
lateral hires fall to five-year low and US firms paused expansion in 2009 but are back on the hunt.