DLA Piper has added to its City finance offering with the hire of CMS Cameron McKenna's investment funds practice head Gawain Hughes.

Hughes joined the transatlantic law firm earlier this week (6 September) as the fourth partner in the investment funds team, headed by City partner David Williams.

Hughes has a practice focused on advising fund managers, investors and administrators on all aspects of fund formation, administration and promotion in the UK and offshore.

He also has a sector focus in the real estate, venture capital, infrastructure and hedge and alternative fund sectors, and has previously advised clients including Scottish Widows Investment Partnership, F&C Asset Management, Bank of Ireland and Matrix Private Equity Partners.

DLA Piper's investment funds practice boasts clients including Deutsche Bank, Credit Suisse, Barclays, the Royal Bank of Scotland and UBS.

Commenting on the hire, Williams said that DLA Piper is currently growing its investment funds team in a bid to meet demand. He said: "We found that we have a large number of mandates that require senior resource. Gawain's practice is largely complementary to what we do and in addition he is a very intellectually able lawyer with a good client base and a way of working that we felt very much fitted with the team."

The firm made its most recent lateral addition to the team last year when investment funds partner Jon Hayes, who also focuses on corporate transactions, joined from Linklaters.