McGuireWoods has boosted its City presence with a double partner hire from Squire Sanders including former London managing partner Andrew Visintin.

Restructuring partner Visintin and corporate partner Philip Newhouse both joined the US firm this week.

As Legal Week reported earlier this year, Visintin left Squire Sanders at the end of 2009 having joined the US outfit in 2006 from Hammonds. His practice focuses on acting for distressed funds and insolvency practitioners on a broad range of insolvency-related matters.

Newhouse has a general corporate practice with a number of his clients based in the Middle East. The pair become the 19th and 20th partners in McGuireWoods' City office.

London managing partner Anders Grundberg commented: "These moves represent a further significant step on the road to fulfilling McGuireWoods' London office strategy of not only strengthening its international client offering on the insolvency, bankruptcy and reconstruction side, but also in the M&A, joint ventures, reorganisations and investment funds fields.

"These are particularly important in relation to our US client-related business, and it is set for additional growth as a consequence of these hires."

The firm launched in London on 1 May 2009 through a merger with Grundberg Mocatta Rakison, subsequently bringing in a four-lawyer litigation team from Steptoe & Johnson headed up by partner Adam Greaves.