Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek has hired a corporate partner from Paul Hastings in Frankfurt.
Ali Sahin, a former Baker & McKenzie Frankfurt partner recruited by Paul Hastings in 2012, will begin work for the domestic firm next month. He predominantly focusses on M&A, specialising in the technology and life sciences sectors, but he also handles restructuring and compliance matters.
Commenting on the hire, Heuking Frankfurt partner Daniel Froesch said Sahin’s appeal was three-fold: his transactional and technology experience, and his "outstanding contacts" in Turkey. Sahin for his part said the firm’s full-service approach was one of the main drivers behind his decision.
Already among Germany’s larger independent firms, Heuking has expanded steadily in numbers and revenue since 2009, with the former increasing by almost 23% and the latter improving by 35% between then and 2013. In 2013 and 2014, the firm grew aggressively, making headlines on a number of occasions with lateral hires.
In September last year, it appropriated an entire office – 18 lawyers, eight of them partners - from fellow domestic advisor GSK Stockmann & Kollegen to launch in Stuttgart. At the beginning of the year, it added a finance partner in Frankfurt, hiring Thomas Schrell from King & Wood Mallesons's branch in the country's financial capital, and corporate partners in Düsseldorf and Munich. M&A specialist Michael Sörgel joined from DLA Piper in Cologne and the restructuring-focussed Arnold Büssemaker moved to the firm's Bavarian base from Weil Gotshal & Manges.
The previous year was similarly active. In February 2013, the independent recruited a real estate and finance team from Orrick, which gave it nine new fee-earners, including four partners. While that September, it made another big statement, adding a team of eight lawyers with a mixture of specialisms – banking, finance, investment funds and tax - from Berger Steck & Kollegen. It included new Frankfurt partners Kai-Uwe Steck, Christoph Gringel, Michael Neises and Jörn Matuszewski, and Matthias Hertel, who is based in Zurich.
Hueking employs more than 300 lawyers across eight domestic offices and branches in Brussels and Zurich.