Eversheds is transferring its national head of e-commerce Rex Parry from Leeds to its London office as the national firm moves to boost its City finance practice.

Parry, who is to move to London on 4 March, was formerly head of IT and e-commerce at both the Leeds and Manchester offices, before former Garretts lawyer Jason Austin was brought in to head the Manchester operation in August last year.

Austin will now head the 12-fee earner northern team alongside Leeds-based partner Paula Barrett. Barrett will take responsibility for the Leeds and Newcastle practices.

Parry will concentrate on building Eversheds' London IT group, which is half the size of the northern team.

Parry said: "There is a very good business case for helping to develop the team down there. There are a large number of IT clients in London and there is a large user base."

Parry is the latest in a string of partners to have been moved to London from the firm's established Leeds practice.

In May 2001, the firm transferred corporate partner Rob Pitcher to London, following on from the City move of senior corporate partner Ian Richardson the previous October.

Meanwhile, Eversheds is also adding David Boyd, an energy partner with Australian firm Allens Arthur Robinson, to its banking team in London.

Boyd, who joins the firm on 18 February, will be the fourth partner in Eversheds' London banking team, alongside Indraj Mangat, Antony Thomlinson, and former BAe Systems legal director Philip Perotta.

Prior to joining Allens, Boyd was a member of the commercial team at Slaughter and May in London and New York.

Eversheds has struggled to rebuild its banking department in the past two years after the defection of a number of its banking lawyers, including former department head David Halliday.