Dentons is delighted to welcome experienced corporate tax specialist Neil McKnight as a partner to its Tax team in London.

He joins the firm from Morgan Lewis, where he was a partner in the tax practice.

Neil specialises in corporate tax matters for UK and international clients, focusing on M&A transactions, domestic and international tax structuring, financial transactions (including securitisations and structured finance), and real estate tax matters.

He also has a burgeoning reputation for, and experience in, the tax implications of global mobility and ESG.

Global law firm K&L Gates LLP welcomes Sonya Van de Graaff as a partner in its Finance practice. She joins the firm’s London office from Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP.

Van de Graaff brings a wealth of experience in English law and cross-border restructuring transactions, as well as distressed debt, and non-performing loan auctions.

Skadden is pleased to welcome Bijal Vakil to the firm as a partner in its Intellectual Property Litigation Group. Based in Palo Alto, Mr. Vakil advises clients on contentious patent matters, trade secrets disputes and complex U.S. and cross-border IP and technology transactions. He joins from another global law firm, where he led the openings of its San Francisco and Silicon Valley offices and founded and co-chaired its Global Technology Industry Group.

Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP announced that M. Kathryn Stone has joined the Firm’s Washington, D.C. office as a Partner in the Tax Practice.

“Kathryn is known for creating innovative tax solutions for clients across the investment funds and real estate landscape,” said Alden Millard, Chair of Simpson Thacher’s Executive Committee. “Her diverse practice will enhance our global Tax capabilities and will be an asset for a wide variety of clients, and we are very excited to welcome her to the team.”

Latham & Watkins is pleased to announce that Oliver Seiler and David Rath will rejoin the firm’s Frankfurt office as partners in the Capital Markets Practice. Highly regarded in their field, Seiler and Rath bring a wealth of experience advising issuers, private equity sponsors, and underwriters in a broad range of domestic and international equity capital markets transactions.

Freshfields announced that Heather Brookfield has joined the firm in its U.S. employee benefits & executive compensation practice as a Silicon Valley-based partner.

In a move that reinforces its position as the premier law firm for tech clients, Freshfields announced that prominent corporate lawyer Calise Cheng has joined the firm’s capital markets group as a partner in Silicon Valley.

Calise represents companies at all stages of their lifecycle, from startup to mega-cap, as well as venture capital firms and other institutional investors. Her corporate practice includes IPOs and other public offerings, venture-backed private financings, governance and disclosure matters.

Global law firm Clifford Chance has announced that Philipp Girardet will join the firm as a partner in its Global Antitrust Group based in London.

Philipp joins from Willkie Farr & Gallagher. He brings deep expertise in EU and UK competition law, including in relation to complex, cross-border merger control, FDI and antitrust/cartel defence cases as well as market investigations, and compliance advice/behavioural matters. His expertise also extends to digital regulation issues, competition litigation and strategic consumer law cases.

Global law firm, DLA Piper announces the appointment of Katarzyna Jakubiak as a partner in the firm's international Finance group, effective 1 December 2024.

A&O Shearman announced that Andrew Tannenbaum, currently the General Counsel of Barclays Execution Services, is set to join the firm early in 2025 as global co-head of Cybersecurity, based in New York. Andrew will lead the firm’s Cybersecurity team with fellow global co-head, Ffion Flockhart.