London's financial district at night. (Photo: Shutterstock.com)

Alston & Bird has opened a London office centered around its established finance and payments practices with seven lawyers from K&L Gates and Constantine Cannon.

"There's been a boom in the payments sector, because the way we all pay for things is changing," said managing partner Richard Hays. "We have a significant practice in the payments area, handling digital banking, cryptocurrency, regulatory issues and M&A work."

The new London office will work closely with the Brussels office that Alston, based in Atlanta, opened in 2011 to extend its payments practice to Europe, Hays said. Alston's marquee payments practice originated in Atlanta, a hub for payments processors and fintech companies and has expanded internationally over the years.

Alston recruited two finance partners from K&L Gates to launch the London outpost: Andrew Petersen, who headed the finance practice for K&L Gates' London office and was a practice area leader for that firm's global finance practice, and James Spencer. Petersen and Spencer, who have practiced together for more than 17 years, represent lenders and investors, including banks, debt funds and private equity funds, on financing transactions.

They bring two associates, Sherry Scrivens and Tom Dunn. Hays said he expects more associates to join Petersen and Spencer from their prior firm.

James Ashe-Taylor, the partner from New York-based Constantine Cannon, practices payments and competition law. A former barrister, he represents clients in EU cartel investigations and antitrust litigation, and he advises on U.K. and EU financial regulatory issues, including the EU's Directive on Payment Services.

Ashe-Taylor headed Constantine Cannon's European antitrust practice and is the former partner-in-charge for Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher's London and Brussels offices. He brings associates Simon Albert and Nassos Kalliris.

Alston payments partner Rich Willis, the partner-in-charge for its Brussels office, will take the same role for the London office.

The London location is Alston's 12th office—and third internationally, after Brussels and Beijing. The firm, which has more than 800 lawyers, reported 2018 revenue of $812.3 million and revenue per lawyer reached $994,000.

Alston has no plans at present to build a full-service office in London, Hays said. Rather, the firm opened the office, which has been in the works for about a year, to serve its payments and finance clients in Europe.

But Alston does plan to expand its payments and finance team in London, he said. "We are actively recruiting and speaking with partners from top-tier firms in these areas."

"We felt the internal demand to be there," Hays said. "Having these three partners anchor our London practice, with their practice overlap, their understanding of the local market, their level of experience and their client overlap with our clients—we're really excited about it. Having all those tumblers line up has taken time."

Alston partners knew Petersen, Spencer and Ashe-Taylor from working on deals with them and through mutual clients, Hays said. He declined to name the clients that the new London partners bring to Alston, but said that Fleetcor Technologies, an Atlanta-based payments provider, is one shared client. (Alston represented Fleetcor in its 2017 acquisition of Toronto-based Cambridge Global Payments for $690 million.)

Alston also does work for bank clients in London, including Wells Fargo and Bank of America, including matters pertaining to credit card and other electronic transactions.

"We go into markets where we have a very specific reason to be there and client demand, and where there is internal collaboration across teams and offices," Hays said. Alston's finance practice spans all its offices, Hays said, and it has U.S. payments practitioners in Atlanta, Charlotte, Washington, New York, Dallas and Los Angeles.

Duncan Douglass, who leads Alston's payments practice from Atlanta, said in a statement: "With the UK consolidating its position as a world leader in digital banking and other payments channels, both Rich and James strengthen our London offering as a leading platform from which to advise clients on transactions, product development, and regulatory issues related to retail and wholesale payments systems and products."

Alston is one of the first major U.S. firms to launch in London since Cooley made its dramatic entrance in 2015, with the hire of a 55-lawyer team from Morrison & Foerster and Edwards Wildman.

The firm currently has a limited international presence, with the bulk of its offices spread across the U.S. It has small bases in Brussels and Beijing. During the last financial year, Alston expanded its West Coast practice with hires in Los Angeles, adding lawyers from Gibson Dunn and a team of class action lawyers from DLA Piper.

In San Francisco, the firm added products liability litigator Steven Selna from Drinker Biddle & Reath, who headed that firm's office.

Alston's London office is located in the Octagon Point building in the City of London, next to St. Paul's Cathedral and near the London Stock Exchange.

Meganne Tillay in London contributed reporting.