Gibson Dunn & Crutcher has hired four partners from troubled German firm Bieten Burkhardt Mittl & Wegener.
The four German partners are Christoph Kuhmann, Christoph Hoebbel and Michael Walther based in Munich, along with Berlin-based partner Benno Schwarz.
The four partners are to launch a Munich office for the Los Angeles based Gibson Dunn, putting the US firm at the centre of Germany’s private equity and technology market.
The move gives the US firm its first presence in Germany at a time when it is investing in its City office with the hire of Mark Pinder from Sidley Austin Brown & Wood.
The four German partners resigned last month after a spat between management over the future direction and financial structure of the firm.
Despite the resignations the four were under heavy management pressure to stay and a controversial restructuring plan that had been delayed was pushed forward in response.
Bernard Grinspan, Gibson Dunn’s chair of European operations and head of the firm’s Paris and London offices, said: “We confident the integration will be seamless.”
The hires mark a considerable commitment for the Los Angeles firm. It is now squaring up to compete in Germany with a raft of other Anglo-German link-ups focused on exploiting next year’s expected corporate boom.
Gibson Dunn represents a number of major clients with interests in Europe such as Hewlett-Packard, Intel, DaimlerChrysler and GE Medical Systems.
Meanwhile, Beitens continues to look for an Anglo-Saxon merger partner following brief but unsuccessful talks with City firm Simmons & Simmons in July.
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