SJ movers and shakers

Baker & McKenzie appoints leading competition lawyer in Johannesburg

Baker & McKenzie has further grown its South African and sub-Saharan offering with the appointment of competition lawyer Nick Altini as a partner. He joins the firm from Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr where he was national head of its competition practice. Altini joins with senior associate Leana Engelbrecht.

Altini's appointment follows a series of recent hires in the Johannesburg including: Johan Botes, who joined from Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr; John Bell, who joined from GWK; and David Davies, who joined from Eskom Holdings SOC Limited where he was legal counsel for the Nuclear Operating Unit.

Baker & McKenzie's Johannesburg office launched in May 2012 with 31 lawyers and staff and has since grown to more than 100 lawyers and staff.

Orrick unveils seven more Houston office partners

Orrick has announced seven additional partners in the firm's new Houston office. Carlos Treistman, Bill Parish, Rodrigo Dominguez, Jonathan Ayre, and Joe Roger all join from Morgan Lewis. Meanwhile, David Ronn, and Barbara de Marigny join from McGuireWoods.

Orrick announced the opening of its Houston office last month. With this latest group, the office comprises 22 lawyers from seven different firms.

The firm earlier announced that Houston partner Blake H Winburne will serve as global co-head of the firm's energy and infrastructure group. The other energy partners who recently joined the Houston office are Dahl Thompson, Matt Archer, Brad Gathright, George Humphrey, Giji John, and Darrell Thomas.

Morton Fraser commercial real estate team in demand with two panel wins

Morton Fraser will provide legal services to two leading pensions providers after being appointed to their panels of commercial real estate legal advisers.

Carlisle-based InvestAcc has named Morton Fraser as its sole Scottish provider of legal services on its panel of five UK-based law firms. Xafinity SIPP, based in Stirling, also named Morton Fraser as one of only three Scottish firms on its existing panel of legal support.

Muckle expands corporate team with senior partner appointment

Mike Spetch has joined north-east based Muckle as a partner. Spetch joins Muckle at a time when the corporate team has experienced considerable growth. Last year, the team advised on more mergers and acquisitions of businesses valued above £500,000 in the region than any other law firm, placing the firm at the top of the Experian CorpFin league tables for the second year in a row.

Slaughter and May advise Vodafone on the merger of Dutch operations

Slaughter and May is advising Vodafone on the merger of its Dutch operations with those of Liberty Global. As part of the transaction, Vodafone and Liberty will create a 50:50 joint venture. The transaction will create an integrated communications provider with over 15 million revenue generating units spread across video, high-speed broadband, fixed-line telephony, and mobile.

The transaction is expected to close around the end of 2016 and is subject to regulatory approvals and works council consultations.

Slaughter and May worked as an integrated team with NautaDutilh. Corporate and commercial partners Roland Turnill and Susannah Macknay lead the team and are assisted by associates Shalini Shanthikumar, Anthony Doolittle, Victoria MacDuff and Christopher Tolley, and trainee Rory Botros.

The team also includes tax partner Steve Edge, assisted by associate Owen Williams; competition partner Claire Jeffs, assisted by associates Will Turtle, Patrick Horan, and Ying Wu; IP/IT partner Rob Sumroy, assisted by associate Duncan Blaikie; and financing partner Guy O'Keefe, assisted by associates Oliver Storey and Steve Dempsey.

Simmons & Simmons appoints first general counsel

Simmons & Simmons has created a new role of general counsel and announced that partner Simon Watson will take up the role with effect from 1 May 2016.Watson is currently the UK and international practice group head for the firm's employment, pensions, and incentives team.

Jeremy Hoyland, the firm's managing partner, commented: 'Simon's extensive experience as a leading lawyer, as well as his commercial acumen, will be invaluable in shaping the ways we do business in an increasingly complex environment. As the firm's first general counsel, he will be integral to the future development of the firm.'

New head of residential property for Thursfields

Thursfields solicitors have welcomed Louise Jones as head of residential property. Having worked in-house for one of the largest UK house-builders for the last eight years Jones also has substantial experience in all aspects of a new-build transaction, including Help to Buy and Shared Ownership.

Director and head of private client, Shane Miller, said: 'I am delighted to welcome Louise to the team - her expertise with development work, coupled with her attention to detail and knowledge of her clients' needs will only seek to strengthen our team and increase the offering to our clients.'