Allen & Overy (A&O) has stepped up its corporate presence in America with the hire of four partners and one senior counsel for its New York office.
The hires are led by Vinson & Elkin’s New York head of corporate Eric Shube, who has been given the brief to help A&O break into the American M&A market under ex-Cravath Swaine & Moore partner Dan Cunningham, who joined the firm in March.
The other hires are Marun Jazbik, another Vinsons partner who specialises in Latin American work, Peter Harwich US associate general counsel at Unilever, White & Case pensions partner Henry Morgenbesser and environmental specialist Kenneth Rivlin of McCarter & English who joins as counsel.
All five lawyers have also worked as lawyers at Cravaths in the past and bring the total of US-qualified lawyers in A&O’s New York office to 60.
Although A&O does not expect to compete with top local firms such as Cravaths for the domestic corporate market it plans to offer a better capability for international deals through its spread of offices in Europe and Asia.
The hires come as A&O prepares to move to a new building in New York early next year that is six times larger than the its current premises.
The firm believes it will be able to fill the increased office space with a raft of further hires and more junior recruitment both at a mid and newly qualified level.
As well as expanding its US capability in New York the firm has built up its American capability throughout its international network and now has 120 US-qualified lawyers.
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