DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary's, Austrian and central and eastern European (CEE) arm DLA Weiss-Tessbach has hired Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer Paris partner Thomas Hechl to head up its projects and finance practice in CEE.

International projects and finance lawyer Hechl, who joined DLA Weiss-Tessbach on 1 May, previously headed Freshfields' energy and infrastructure team in Paris.

Hechl, who is US-qualified with 20 years' experience in projects and finance transactions, has taken over the role from Austria and CEE regional managing partner, Stefan Eder.

In 1998, Hechl was part of the team that founded Freshfields' Washington office, where he remained until 2003, when he transferred to Paris.

Eder, who will still do some client work alongside his managerial role, told Legal Week: "Infrastructure and project finance in the CEE region will be over proportionate compared with the rest of Europe. There is a lot of European Union funding coming in and it is a fast growing area."
DLA Weiss-Tessbach has 30 lawyers in its projects and finance practice in the CEE which are spread across seven offices in Vienna, Salzburg, Budapest, Prague, Bratislava, Zagreb and Sarajevo.

DLA has also launched a 12-lawyer office in Atlanta with a team of lawyers from Hunton & Williams and Jones Day. The team, which is made up of litigation and finance lawyers, includes four partners: Mark Grantham, who will serve as the office managing partner, Russell Bogue and Arthur Brannan, all join from Hunton & Williams. In addition, Tracy Plott joins from Jones Day.

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