LeBoeuf Lamb Greene & MacRae has hired ex-Cable & Wireless general counsel Andrew Garard as a partner in its London arm.

Garard is due to join the London office's corporate team on 1 May this year – taking the practice to 22 partners and more than 95 lawyers.

He will take the number of corporate partners to around 10 and adds to LeBoeuf's strength in the telecoms field. LeBoeuf, which also works for Spanish giant Telefonica, worked with Garard during his time at Cable & Wireless.

The hire is the third senior appointment this year in the top 50 US firm's European practice, coming after the recruitment in Paris of Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe partner Francois Bloch and SJ Berwin tax partner Jean Goncalves.

LeBoeuf London managing partner Peter Sharp told Legal Week: "We are steadily growing our London corporate practice – we want it to become bigger and more all-embracing. Andrew has had unique exposure to the top end of the telecoms industry and that is an expanding area for us, so it is great to get someone with that experience."

Garard oversaw a number of changes as group general counsel and company secretary at Cable & Wireless, including a shake-up of the telecom's giant's legal panel in 2004.

Before joining Cable & Wireless in 2003, he was global head of legal and deputy general counsel at Reuters, and previously worked with Reuters in Hong Kong as Asian general counsel. He was a corporate lawyer at Clifford Chance and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer prior to joining Reuters.