Bracewell has picked up a pair of project finance partners from Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman in New York.

Nicolai Sarad, who served as co-head of Pillsbury's projects team, and partner Fernando Rodriguez Marin have joined the Houston-based firm, which earlier this month said that partner profits and gross revenue had increased slightly in 2017.

“[Sarad] and [Marin] are highly accomplished project finance lawyers,” said Bracewell managing partner Gregory Bopp, who took over as head of the firm in 2016, in a statement announcing its new hires. “Their international experience on energy and infrastructure projects complements Bracewell's strengths in energy and finance. We're pleased to welcome them to the firm.”

Sarad and Marin, who were unavailable for immediate comment about their decision to join Bracewell, both joined Pillsbury in early 2015 from DLA Piper, where they practiced with one another for more than a decade. (During his time at DLA Piper, Sarad was caught up in a high-profile overbilling suit filed against the firm by a former client, a dispute that the global legal giant settled in April 2013.)

The former Pillsbury partners represent developers, financial institutions, investors and government agencies on global project finance, infrastructure, energy and other related transactions. During their time at their former firms, Sarad and Marin worked on several notable transportation, energy and infrastructure deals, such as the Ohio Portsmouth Bypass Project, where they represented underwriters on the state's first major public-to-private (P3) project and its largest single-roadway construction project.

With the addition of Sarad and Marin, Bracewell hopes to expand its reach into Latin America and deepen its P3 infrastructure practice.

“I'm looking forward to working with the highly collaborative team at Bracewell,” Sarad said in a statement. “The firm has a clear vision for growing the New York office and projects team by capitalizing on Bracewell's strengths in energy and finance.”

Growing its offices on the East Coast, including in Washington, D.C., has been a priority for Bracewell in recent months. The firm, which late last year hired former Crowell & Moring leader Angela Styles as a government contracts partner in the nation's capital, also recently picked up former Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom energy regulatory counsel Cheryl Foley in Washington, D.C.

Bracewell has also seen some departures.

In February, Sidley Austin brought on Bracewell environmental partner Heather Palmer in Houston, while Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld recruited the firm's former London managing partner Julian Nichol. A month earlier, Mayer Brown recruited Glen Kopp, a former federal prosecutor in New York who previously served as chair of Bracewell's white-collar defense practice. Bracewell partner David Shargel, son of legendary New York litigator Gerald Shargel, also left the firm to join Long Island, New York-based Westerman Ball Ederer Miller Zucker & Sharfstein.