Orrick has advised EQT portfolio company United Digital Group (UDG) on the sale of its media and performance marketing division to Omnicom Media Group Germany.

UDG is one of the leading digital communications agencies in Germany. Omnicom Media Group Germany is the German media holding company of NYSE-listed Omnicom, a leading global communications, advertising and marketing services group.

The Orrick team advising UDG was led by M&A and private equity partner Thomas Schmid, who previously advised EQT on its acquisition of UDG in 2011.

Boris Zelkind has joined Duane Morris LLP’s San Diego office as a partner in the firm’s Intellectual Property Practice Group. He was most recently a partner at Knobbe Martens in San Diego.

“Boris brings a strong IP litigation practice to Duane Morris,” said Matthew A. Taylor, CEO and Chairman of Duane Morris. “We’re excited to add his skills to our robust Intellectual Property Practice Group.”

Global law firm Greenberg Traurig, LLP continues its strategic expansion in Texas with the addition of Cara Mittleman Kelly as shareholder in the firm’s Global Litigation Practice in Austin. Kelly joins the firm from Munsch Hardt Kopf & Harr, P.C., where she was a shareholder.

Al Tamimi & Company, the largest law firm in the Middle East, is delighted to announce the appointment of Andrew Tarbuck as the head of Capital Markets – UAE. Andrew will join Al Tamimi & Company on 11 November 2018 from Hogan Lovells, where he served as a Partner and represented clients throughout the Middle East, the US, Asia, and Europe on capital markets transactions, public and private M&A, restructurings, flotations, secondary equity fundraisings, and sukuk.

Global law firm Dentons has announced plans to open a new office in Düsseldorf with the recruitment of two new partners who bring well-respected capabilities in public procurement, EU state aid, trade and trade compliance, as well as employment law. This will be Dentons’ fourth office in Germany after Berlin, Frankfurt and Munich, offering clients extensive coverage of the country’s most important financial and industrial centers, as well as access to Europe’s most important region for foreign direct investment.

Eversheds Sutherland has further strengthened its global privacy and cybersecurity offering with the strategic lateral hire of Partner Simon Morrissey.

Simon is highly experienced in providing privacy advice across key business sectors including advertising and marketing, retail and leisure and media and entertainment. Simon’s clients range from high growth start-ups to listed and global companies. Simon joins from Lewis Silkin where he formerly led the Data & Privacy Legal Practice Group.

Wolf Theiss has announced the expansion of its Corporate Investigations Practice: Jitka Logesová will head the practice in the CEE/SEE region and will be supported by Robert Pelikán. Out of our new Corporate Investigations hub in Prague, Jitka and Robert will work on multinational investigations together with our existing teams in the other 12 offices.

The cross-border Corporate Investigations team will work closely with our strong corporate practise and will complement the Wolf Theiss Compliance, White Collar Crime and Asset Tracing teams in CEE/SEE.

Mario Schiavon, 56, a renowned real estate expert, has recently joined the CEE Real Estate Team of the international law firm Taylor Wessing as a partner. Mario has more than 20 years of experience in all areas of real estate law and extensive knowledge of the Austrian real estate sector, in which he also has an excellent network.

Global, sector-focused law firm HFW has continued to expand its fast-growing global energy practice with the hire of senior project finance partner Andrew Thomas.

Andrew joins the firm's London office from Hunton Andrews Kurth.

He is the third partner to join HFW in the past seven days, following the arrival of corporate and finance partners Vince Gordon and Tania de Swart from Reed Smith in Abu Dhabi.

Hogan Lovells has appointed Ludovic Geneston to its Paris office as a tax partner. Ludovic joins from Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, where he has been since 2007.

Ludovic has worked on all aspects of French and international tax law, particularly on transactional taxation (M&A deals of listed or unlisted companies, private equity, and infrastructure projects). He is also recognized for his expertise in real estate and finance taxation. Ludovic also regularly advises on complex tax disputes matters, both pre- and post-litigation.