Milbank Tweed Hadley & McCloy has boosted its Munich office with the hire of a partner from Slaughter and May's German ally Hengeler Mueller.

Corporate partner Wolfgang Grobecker joined the US firm's 36-lawyer German practice last week (1 January), after leaving Hengeler at the end of last year.

Grobecker had been a partner with the leading German firm since 2005 after being admitted to practise at the German Bar in 1999.

Milbank Munich partner Norbert Rieger commented: "We are very excited to welcome such an experienced leader in corporate law to our firm. His election underlines the significance of this practice within our German corporate practice."

Hengeler operates a similar recruitment policy to its UK ally Slaughters, making few lateral hires and rarely seeing partner defections.

Milbank opened in Munich in 2004, having initially entered the German market in 2001 with an office in Frankfurt. That launch followed Milbank's first move into Europe in 1979 when it opened in London.

Though Milbank only has three bases throughout Europe, the firm has been expanding its offices on the continent in recent years, with growth areas including capital markets, corporate, finance, private equity, outsourcing and litigation.