Just a week after Andrews Kurth Kenyon confirmed it would merge, a five-member group of finance lawyers in New York left the Texas-based firm to head for Alston & Bird.

Alston & Bird, an Atlanta-based firm with about 140 lawyers in New York, said this week it had hired three partners, including David Hoyt, Kenneth Rothenberg and Russell Chiappetta, as well as two counsel, Mathew Gray and Jason Cygielman. All arrive from Andrews Kurth, where Hoyt and Rothenberg were partners and Chiappetta, Gray and Cygielman were counsel.