Slaughter and May ally Uria Menendez has hired highly-rated partner Juan Antonio Loste to lead its environmental practice in Barcelona.

Loste joined the Spanish leader at the end of February from Schiller Abogados. He is accompanied by a team of associates including Jaime Calvo, Ingrid Barruz and Victor Ruiz.

Loste, who joined Schiller from Maluquer Abogados in 1996, counts several large petrochemical companies among his clients and has acted on a number of administrative and judicial proceedings including developing draft bills for public authorities.

Commenting on the appointment, Carlos de Miguel, who heads Uria's environmental practice group in Madrid, said: "We wanted to reinforce this practice, especially in Catalonia, which is a region with a lot of industries that requires environmental lawyers, such as textile industries and petrochemical companies."

The hire of Loste and his team brings the number of lawyers in the firm's environmental law practice group to 21, with further additions likely according to de Miguel.

He added: "There is more legislation and awareness in the industry. It is a matter that companies have to tackle whether they want to or not."

Uria has been in Barcelona for more than 20 years and has around 100 lawyers in the city in total.