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Reed Smith hires 50-strong team from King & Wood Mallesons

Global law firm Reed Smith has hired several teams, including 17 partners, three counsel, 22 associates, one jurist and seven trainees, as well as two knowledge management lawyers and six secretaries, from King & Wood Mallesons (KWM) to its London, Frankfurt, Munich and Paris offices.

The partners and their teams are expected to join the firm on 23 January and follow several lawyers and business services personnel who joined the firm on 16 January.
 
“It is a mutually rewarding opportunity,” says Tamara Box, managing partner for Europe and the Middle East. “These teams recognised that our global platform, strong collegiate culture, and high quality client base were a good fit for them, and we at Reed Smith seized the opportunity to expand our capabilities through top quality talent in industry sectors, practices and offices that are strategically important for our business. It’s clearly a win-win, not only for all the lawyers involved but for our clients globally.”
 
Corporate, M&A, private equity, financial services regulation, litigation, competition and tax are all areas of strategic focus for Reed Smith and the KWM teams joining the firm are renowned market leaders in these areas.
 
This month Reed Smith celebrates 10 years following the Reed Smith Richards Butler merger. In the past three years the firm has appointed 150 partners (in particular, within the firm’s five key industry sectors) to add to its global platform.
 
In London, the firm will be joined by: financial regulatory partners David Calligan, Tim Dolan, Tamasin Little and Adrian Brown; corporate partners Delphine Currie and Mark Sanders; private equity partner Laura Brunnen and senior counsel Martin Bowen; and tax partner Gareth Amdor. As part of the move, the partners will be joined by 10 associates, three trainees, two knowledge management lawyers and two secretaries.
 
The KWM financial services regulatory team has a market-leading practice, advising banks, funds, real estate, private equity, retail banking and emerging FinTech companies on non-contentious regulatory matters, as well as advising on structured finance matters. The addition of the team will bring Reed Smith’s financial regulatory team to almost 150 lawyers globally.
 
In Paris, the firm will be joined by competition/antitrust partners Marc Lévy and Natasha Tardif; tax partners Sylvie Vansteenkiste, Fanny Combourieu and Raphaël Béra; and corporate and private equity partners Guilain Hippolyte and Pierre-Louis Périn. Following these Paris-based partners will be tax counsel Gwenaël Kropfinger, 10 associates, one jurist, four trainees and four secretaries.
 
The seven-lawyer competition team advise on French and EU antitrust disputes for many international clients, including clients common to Reed Smith. The team is involved in a great number of major ongoing competition cases. The Paris tax team includes three partners, one counsel, three associates and one jurist who have strong expertise in private equity, advising on all elements of fund formation including all tax issues related to funds, carried interest and management incentives.  The team also advises on corporate/LBO and real estate tax matters as well as on tax audits for both funds and high net worth individuals. The Paris corporate/private equity team includes two partners and two associates. The team’s work covers international M&A, private equity, venture capital, fund formation, governance and structuring for French groups as well as listed companies.
 
“The prominent reputation of the KWM Paris practice and these talented lawyers in competition, private equity and tax has had us chasing these lawyers for some time; we’re delighted to see our efforts come to fruition in such an exciting way” says Box.
 
In Germany, Reed Smith will be joined by competition/antitrust partner Tilman Siebert (in Munich) and litigation partner Francis Bellen (in Frankfurt). The partners will also be joined by counsel Dr Michaela Westrup (in Munich) and two associates (one in Frankfurt and one in Munich). 
 
“This group demonstrates the power of working together as a truly joined-up cross-border team and what that offers our clients. This is how we work at Reed Smith and is why the opportunity to combine our practices instantly appealed to us,” says Peter Teare, Reed Smith partner and head of the firm’s Europe and Middle East corporate practice. “The marrying of our existing corporate team with this group of high quality lawyers enables us to offer an even greater European corporate capability to our clients in each of our key European markets.”
 
Expansion of Reed Smith’s presence in Germany, in line with its industry group focus, remains a key commitment for the business. The firm has been established in Munich for over 10 years and, since the launch of its Frankfurt office in 2015, has grown to almost 50 lawyers across both offices.

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