Latham & Watkins has boosted its London office with the hire of two litigation partners from Hogan Lovells, which itself has hired two new laterals to grow its energy, infrastructure and natural resources practice.

Jon Holland, co-head of global financial services litigation at Hogan Lovells, and banking litigation partner Andrea Monks are headed to Latham's litigation and trial department in London. Holland joined legacy firm Lovells in 1986 and is also qualified to practice in Australia and Hong Kong. He specializes in financial services investigations and litigation.

Monks' practice includes advising banks on contentious regulatory investigations and acting for financial services firms and other companies on anti-money laundering matters.

“Jon and Andrea have outstanding reputations in high-stakes, market-defining disputes and investigations,” said a statement from Jay Sadanandan, a leveraged finance specialist who in 2015 became the head of Latham's London office. “Their broad expertise knits well with our growing litigation and regulatory practices in [London] and fits with our strategy of building top-notch litigation strength across the globe.”

In October, when Latham hired CMS litigator Ian Felstead and tapped two new London disputes leaders, Latham also touted its plan to ramp up its litigation expertise in London by doubling the number of its lawyers in its local litigation group within the next three-to-five years.

Earlier this week, Latham also added Catherine McBride, head of litigation and regulatory enforcement for North Asia at Deustche Bank AG, as a contentious regulatory partner in Hong Kong. That hire came a week after Latham landed McDermott Will & Emery tax controversy co-chair Jean Pawlow as partner in Washington, D.C., and Silicon Valley, while also reportedly moving closer to bringing aboard former Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar from his role as an adviser to DLA Piper's global board. (Juan Picon, a fellow Spaniard and former global co-chair at DLA Piper, left the latter late last year to join Latham as a corporate partner and head of its Madrid office.)

As for Hogan Lovells, which earlier this month saw four litigators leave its new Boston office, the global legal giant announced this week its hire of Baker Botts energy and infrastructure partner Kevin Keenan in Houston and addition of Allen & Overy senior associate Sarah Farmer Shaw as an energy and natural resources partner in London.

Hogan Lovells also recently recruited Norton Rose Fulbright director Christine Rodrigues as an insurance and finance partner in Johannesburg, where the former opened an office in late 2013 following its tie-up with South African firm Routledge Modise.