Kirkland & Ellis has picked up two debt finance partners from Norton Rose Fulbright in New York, the latest in a string of similar transactional hires for the top-ranked firm so far this year.

The firm announced Friday the addition of Robert Eberhardt and William Nicholson, two partners with particular expertise in the energy sector, which firm chairman Jon Ballis said in a statement is “an area of significant growth” for Kirkland.