Chadbourne & Parke is to launch in St Petersburg after recruiting a three-lawyer team from dissolving US rival Coudert Brothers.

The launch comes months after Chadbourne bagged another Coudert team to set up a base in Kazakhstan and hands the New York firm its second Russian practice alongside Moscow. Chadbourne opened its Moscow office in 1990 and has more than 80 lawyers across CIS and Central Europe.

The St Petersburg team includes counsels Alexander Kalinov and Konstantin Osipov as well as associate Nonna Crane. A fourth lawyer, senior associate Ludmila Yegorova, has joined the firm from Coudert in Moscow and will split her time between the two offices.

The hires are the latest in a long line of Coudert teams to jump to rival firms after the US firm announced in August that it was to dissolve.

Chadbourne managing partner Charles O'Neill said: "We've seen an increase in activity in St Petersburg so this is a natural extension of our Russia and CIS practice."

The hires comes after Chadbourne earlier this year substantially bolstered its London arm with the recruitment of five insurance partners from Denton Wilde Sapte.