Davenport Lyons has expanded its corporate team with the hire of John Hiscock from Addleshaw Goddard.

Hiscock, who joined the West End law firm as a partner at the beginning of this month, will work with corporate head Michael Hatchwell.

His practice covers private equity and venture capital, investment funds, structured finance, M&A and structured real estate work, with his past clients including Matrix Group and Royal Bank of Scotland.

Hiscock commented: "Davenport Lyons is a good medium-sized firm with lawyers that are ambitious without being overly aggressive. The location means I am close to a lot of my clients. Given the nature of the market the firm is well positioned to take advantage of it."

Davenport Lyons is also bringing in former Speechly Bircham property partner Susan Lewis as a consultant in its real estate group. The appointments are the latest in a series of moves by the firm to take advantage of the market downturn with planned growth.

They follow the recruitment of partners including corporate partner Jonathan Metliss – who helped found SJ Berwin – property partner duo Ian Chappell and Adrian Bingham from Hextalls and Howard Kennedy tax head Roger Bindschedler.