Squire Sanders & Dempsey has appointed corporate partner Julian Juhasz to head its office in the Slovak Republic, the US national firm announced today (16 October).

Juhasz, who has been with the firm for 13 years and focuses on M&A work, takes over the local role from finance partner Kevin Connor.

Connor will continue to coordinate the firm's 75-lawyer central European practice, which features offices in Bucharest, Budapest, Kiev, Prague and Warsaw as well as Bratislava.

The news comes with Squire Sanders having made a number of additions to its European practice in recent months, with litigation and dispute resolution partner Roderick Cowper joining the firm last month from rival US law firm Bryan Cave to head up its City litigation team.

That followed abortive merger talks between Bryan Cave and Squire Sanders last year, which would have created a 1,600 lawyer firm with revenues topping $800m (£456m) had the discussions been successful.