Lovells poaches Cameron McKenna staff
The U.K./German law firm Lovells Boesebeck Droste hired six partners and several other lawyers from U.K.-based rival CMS Cameron McKenna in an attempt to boost its presence in Poland, Lovells said last week.
"The group of people, until now employed by Cameron McKenna, will join us," said Christian Schmidt, managing partner of Lovells Boesebeck Droste, which was established through a merger earlier this year.
CMS Cameron McKenna confirmed that six partners Beata Balas-Noszczyk, Jolanta Nowakowska-Zimoch, Janusz Adamkowski, Andrzej Debiec, Karol Rutkowski and Marek Wroniak left the firm, apparently to join Lovells Boesebeck Droste, said Steven Shone, managing partner of CMS.
Hiring the lawyers is part of Lovells' plan to increase its presence in Poland, Schmidt said.
Until the merger, only Germany's Boesebeck Droste had an office here, he said, adding that the merger enabled the U.K.-based Lovells White Durant to get a footing in the country. "Our British colleagues were looking for a base in Warsaw," Schmidt said. "The Polish office grew significantly through the merger."
Before hiring the lawyers from Cameron McKenna, Lovells Boesebeck Droste employed 11 lawyers in Warsaw. It will now have more than 20, Schmidt said.
Lovells Boesebeck Droste plans to continue its expansion and will hire more lawyers from rival firms, he said. "We're planning to complete our staff," Schmidt said. Since Lovells specializes in capital markets, banking and project finance, the firm will be looking to hire people from those areas, he said.
Cameron McKenna downplayed the significance of losing its lawyers to Lovells. "It won't have any significant impact on our business," Shone said. "We're perfectly happy."
He added that with 79 lawyers including 11 partners, CMS remains the largest law firm in Poland.
But industry sources said that the loss of the partners came as a serious blow to CMS. Lejb Fogelman, the managing partner of Hunton & Williams Poland, said that until now one of CMS' strongest areas of specialty had been in insurance, under the leadership of 34-year-old Balas-Noszczyk. He said that her departure for Lovells was significant. "This is a hard blow," Fogelman said.
