European law firm Fieldfisher has appointed five new partners in the UK to build an expert practice focused on renewables, energy regulation and energy trading.
The hires, which combine private practise and in-house experience, will work across the law firm’s London and Birmingham offices.
Matthew Williams, who was appointed co-head of energy at Fieldfisher in January, is joined by Elisabeth Blunsdon, who was appointed as an energy regulation team partner in March.
The firm also welcomes new partner Mark Nash, who brings broad experience of the energy infrastructure sector, having previously worked for Amey.
Williams, Blunsdon and Nash all join from Orrick.
Energy and commodities lawyer Rashpaul Bahia has joined the firm’s financial markets and products team as a partner.
Bahia recently advised Morgan Stanley and has extensive experience in energy and commodities trading and transactional matters. He was previously a partner at Reed Smith.
Project development and commercial lawyer Hugo Lidbetter will join Fieldfisher’s energy sector team in May from French energy utility EDF.
Lidbetter was deputy head of legal at EDF and company secretary of its upstream and generation divisions. He was previously in the project development team at Hogan Lovells.
Blundon, Nash and Bahia are all based in London, while Williams and Lidbetter will work across the firm’s London and Birmingham offices, extending the reach of the firm’s renewables practice into regional growth pockets in the UK.
The new team will work alongside Dominic Gurney-Champion (pictured), Fieldfisher’s energy co-head in London and Daniel Marhewka, a corporate energy partner in Munich specialising in renewables.
The new partners will also work with renewables specialists at Fieldfisher’s newest office in Dublin, which officially became part of the firm on 1 May following the merger with Irish firm McDowell Purcell.
Gurney-Champion said: “I am proud to welcome such a high calibre team of energy experts to the firm at a time when we are doubling down Fieldfisher’s strategic focus on energy – and specifically renewables and power.
“They will join forces with our existing energy specialists around our European network to provide seamless, sector-specific capability to our clients.”