Reed Smith takes seven KWM trainees in swoop

As part of a 50-person haul from the now-defunct King Wood Malleson's firm, Reed Smith have taken on seven legal trainees - three in their London office, and four in Paris. 

Reed Smith have announced today the hire of several ex-KWM teams, which include 17 partners, 22 associates, three counsel, six secretaries, two knowledge management lawyers and a jurist; as well as the trainees. The teams will be dispersed amongst the London, Frankfurt, Munich and Paris offices. The latest recruits started on the 23rd January, following an original batch who started work on the 16th January.

“It is a mutually rewarding opportunity”, said Tamara Box, Managing Partner for Europe and the Middle East.  “These teams recognised that our global platform, strong collegiate culture, and high quality client base were a good fit for them, and we at Reed Smith seized the opportunity to expand our capabilities through top quality talent in industry sectors, practices and offices that are strategically important for our business.  It’s clearly a win-win, not only for all the lawyers involved but for our clients globally.”

Corporate, M&A, private equity, financial services regulation, litigation, competition and tax are all key areas which Reed Smith have looked to expand in and the KWM teams joining the firm have established themselves as market leaders in these areas.

Together, the 50 strong group represent many of the same clients and have built their reputation as a cohesive team across disciplines, connecting their skills to provide an integrated service to clients across the UK, Germany and France. Uniquely, this complements Reed Smith’s approach and, as well as sharing experience in areas of practice, the firm will now act for many common clients.

Reed Smith has a long history and proven track record of successful integration of lateral hires, mergers and office openings - notably this month the firm celebrates ten years following the Reed Smith Richards Butler merger.

One of the biggest gains from the move will be the expansion of the firm’s European corporate practice, where the firm shares many mutual clients with these new partners. The KWM corporate team are known market leaders in corporate, competition/antirust, private equity and tax in their respective jurisdictions.  Together, this combination with Reed Smith’s existing team will create a group of almost 80 lawyers with impressive synergy across Reed Smith’s established European platform.

“This group demonstrates the power of working together as a truly joined-up cross-border team and what that offers our clients. This is how we work at Reed Smith and is why the opportunity to combine our practices instantly appealed to us”, said Peter Teare, Reed Smith partner and head of the firm’s Europe and Middle East corporate practice. “The marrying of our existing corporate team with this group of high quality lawyers enables us to offer an even greater European corporate capability to our clients in each of our key European markets.”

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