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 the CIS and Central Europe.

The St Petersburg team includes counsel, 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 trio is the latest in a long line of teams to jump ship to rival firms after Coudert announced in August that it was to dissolve.

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

The hires come after Chadbourne earlier this year recruited five insurance partners from Denton Wilde Sapte for its London arm.