Separate commercial practice groups created as Camerons moves to bring litigation teams together

CMS Cameron McKenna is set to overhaul its UK practice group structure in a bid to boost its litigation profile.

The changes, which will come into effect this week (1 May), will see the firm break up its commercial practice group to form two new departments called human capital and commercial, regulatory and disputes (CRD).

The firm's current head of commercial, City pensions partner Nigel Moore, will head up the human capital group, while insurance and reinsurance group head Liam O'Connell will manage the new CRD group.

The overhaul will see the firm bring the majority of its litigation lawyers into the same practice group for the first time, with technology litigation – which previously fell under the commercial group banner – and litigation lawyers sitting in the firm's banking and capital markets teams brought together in the CRD group.

The former insurance and reinsurance group and financial services and competition teams will also join the CRD practice, which is now expected to account for around 45% of the firm's revenue.

O'Connell said: "The firm has not had the recognition it deserves based on the strength of the disputes practice. What we are trying to do by consolidating the practice is show our strength to the clients and maximise our profile while not losing the important sector focus."

The remaining three teams that formed the commercial practice – pensions, employment and immigration – move into the human capital group. The CRD group will have around 185 lawyers in the UK and the human capital group around 75.

Managing partner Duncan Weston said: "The advantage of this new structure is that each of the teams will form part of a practice group where the teams involved have complementary skills and/or interests in the same business sectors and clients."

Following the changes, Camerons' list of practice groups, in addition to the two new groups, will be: banking and international finance; corporate; energy, projects and construction; and real estate.