Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton has made a rare hire in the City, bringing in former Allen & Overy (A&O) intellectual property (IP) partner Colin Pearson as a consultant.

The addition of Pearson, who will start his full-time role in September, represents the most senior IP hire the London office has made to date, having historically used associates to staff the practice area.

Pearson will work closely with the firm's partnership to build up its global IP practice and advise on all IP and IT-related aspects of complex cross-border transactions. Although the firm does not have formal practice group heads, partner Leonard Jacoby in New York does have some responsibility for coordinating the global IP team.

The firm's global IP practice now consists of eight partners in New York, Brussels, Frankfurt, Paris and London.

Pearson joined A&O in 1997 and became a partner in 2002 with a broad-based IP and IT practice, working on joint ventures, franchising arrangements and licences for patents and development work.

Cleary – which makes a point of promoting staff to senior roles from within the firm – has only made three lateral hires in Europe during the last four years with the last in London coming in 2006 when corporate partner Michael McDonald joined from A&O.

The other two recruits were Laurent Legein, who joined the US firm in Brussels from Clifford Chance, and Jurgen Sieger, who joined from Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer in Cologne.