Howrey is set to boost its Amsterdam office with the hire of a partner from De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek.

Intellectual property (IP) specialist Joris van Manen will join the US firm's Dutch outfit in January 2010, becoming the seventh partner in the 23-lawyer office. Van Manen advises and litigates in trademark, copyright, media, internet and ICT matters.

Howrey's Amsterdam office focuses largely on IP, but van Manen will bring additional expertise in the trademark, copyright and database sectors.

Similarly to Howrey's Amsterdam managing partner Bart van den Broek and its European managing partner Willem Hoyng, Van Manen qualified and made partner at De Brauw, in 1992 and 2000 respectively.

Van den Broek said: "Joris will bring new expertise to the office, and in addition we know him and his practice very well. We are very happy that he has decided to join us."

Van Manen added: "This is a great opportunity for me. After 17 tremendous years at De Brauw, it is now time for a new challenge. Howrey offers me just that. Howrey's approach, strategy and practice fit very well with mine."

The hire comes less than two months after Howrey launched a Paris antitrust practice with the hire of a six-strong team hire from Clifford Chance led by highly-rated competition partner Claude Lazarus and counsel Audrey Amsellem.