Lateral partner hiring by U.S. firms in London picked up last year after the financial downturn, with firms bringing in more partners in 2010 than in any year since the start of 2006.

Legal Week‘s annual survey of hiring trends at the City operations of some of the largest U.S. and transatlantic firms found there were 84 partner hires during 2010 across the 35 firms which took part in the survey.