Washington DC giant Hogan & Hartson has launched a mainstream UK litigation practice with the hire of Rod Baker from Stephenson Harwood (SH).

Baker will become the first UK-qualified litigation partner in the US firm's 45-fee earner City arm and the 19th partner in London overall when he arrives on 15 March.

The move is a notable shift for Hogan as the top 50 US firm has referred a sizeable amount of contentious work to UK advisers in recent years. Last year alone it is believed to have outsourced around £5m worth of litigation work.

Hogan London head Garry Pegg told Legal Week: "We have been hoping for a while to kick off our litigation practice here. This is the last one of the building blocks that we have been trying to put into the London office."

The firm becomes one of a handful of US firms to branch into the UK litigation market with Latham & Watkins recently hiring two senior UK partners to launch its own practice.

Hogan now has UK law teams in property, tax, employment and litigation, alongside its core corporate and finance practice.

Baker, who has been a partner at SH since 1997 stressed that he had been happy at the firm.

In a separate move, Hogan's London arm has also recruited two associates, James Hargrove (litigation) from Barlow Lyde & Gilbert and Joseph Phelan (projects) from Denton Wilde Sapte.