Herbert Smith has bulked up its London tax practice with the hire of McGrigors tax disputes partner Rupert Shiers.

Shiers is set to join Herbert Smith on 2 May 2011, when he will take the London tax disputes team to two partners. His hire takes the firm's overall City tax practice to 17 partners.

Shiers specialises in complex and technical tax disputes, risk management advisory work, and managing appeals to the tax tribunal and other court proceedings.

He has been at McGrigors for nine years and a partner in the London office since 2007.

Herbert Smith's head of tax planning and tax disputes, Heather Gething, said: "Rupert's technical tax knowledge (particularly in relation to direct tax) and skills are superlative. 

"He has the same approach as Herbert Smith does to adding value to client cases with technical knowledge and ability and, like us, he sees tax in the broader picture of disputes, rather than segmenting it off into its own area. We will continue to grow the practice, particularly at the associate level now."

The news comes after private client tax partner Rupert Ticehurst left Herbert Smith for Berwin Leighton Paisner's City base last month. Herbert Smith's most recent partner hires were in March 2010 when the firm brought in two lawyers from Linklaters as partners for its energy practice – Martin Kavanagh and Matthew Job.