DLA Piper has strengthened its Russian finance group with the hire of Vyacheslav Khorovskiy to head its banking practice in the country.

The Russian-qualified partner joined the firm last month from Allen & Overy (A&O), where he was a counsel within the banking team. His practice focuses on syndications, trade and property finance as well as debt capital markets.

The hire has taken the number of partners in DLA Piper's Moscow office to nine, including two in the eight-lawyer banking team.

Before Khorovskiy joined DLA Piper, the firm's Russian banking practice was being overseen temporarily by Andrew Muriel, who relocated to Moscow from London last year. Muriel will now focus on his core practice of aviation finance, asset finance and leasing.

Khorovskiy spent three years at A&O, joining in 2005 from Lovells, where he was a consultant heading the Russian banking practice. Other past roles include a three-year stint in-house with Mosnarbank, a subsidiary of Moscow Narodny Bank.

DLA Piper's regional managing partner in the CIS, Constantine Lusignan-Rizhinashvili, said: "The arrival of Khorovskiy is a tremendous boost to our finance and projects group and the banking team specifically. Banking needs the right balance between English lawyers and native Russian lawyers – this is where Khorovskiy comes in."