CMS Cameron McKenna has hired its second Mayer Brown partner in less than a month, with the UK firm set to bring in Samantha Hampshire as a partner in its energy practice.

Hampshire, who joined the Anglo-American firm in 2005, is a UK-qualified lawyer with experience advising on cross-border energy transactions.

She has worked with a number of firms and, prior to joining Mayer Brown, agreed to join Paul Hastings Janofsky & Walker but never started working with the firm.

She had previously spent time with Baker Botts, where she initially helped to found the London office before managing the firm's Moscow practice.

Her notable transactions include advising on a large privatisation of Croatia's oil and gas industry in 2003, when she acted for the Croatian Ministry of Economy in the part-privatisation of its state-owned production company, INA.

Camerons energy chief Penelope Warne said: "As a noted expert in the energy field, Hampshire will bring considerable additional experience to our market-leading practice."

News of Hampshire's hire comes two weeks after Camerons hired her fellow Mayer Brown partner Melville Rodrigues for its real estate practice. However, the departures come on the back of a raft of lateral hires for the London office of Mayer Brown, with the firm bringing in 16 lateral partners since January 2007.