Reynolds Porter Chamberlain (RPC) has taken a two lawyer team from SJ Berwin, including the top 20 firm's head of outsourcing.

David Meredith has joined RPC as a partner, alongside senior associate Andrew Sutherland, who will take up the position of legal director.

Meredith has been a partner at SJ Berwin since 2007 when he joined from City technology boutique Kemp Little. He joined Kemp Little, where he was a partner, in 2000, having also practised at Allen & Overy and Bird & Bird previously.

His practice focuses on structuring and brokering of sourcing transactions in the IT, telecommunications and media industries, with previous clients while at SJ Berwin including SITA, BBC, EDS and OnAir.

SJ Berwin has no current plans to replace Meredith as head of outsourcing, although three partners remain at the firm with outsourcing expertise.

The hires will bring RPC's intellectual property, technology and outsourcing group to around 20 lawyers covering IP, technology and related outsourcing work.

Group head Jeremy Drew said: "We are committed to building a leading technology law practice at RPC. The arrival of a team of David and Andrew's pedigree represents another significant step towards that goal. They will consolidate our existing work on major IT transactions and help lift our technology offering to the next level."

RPC managing partner Jonathan Watmough added: "David and Andrew are wonderful additions. Technology is one of our core strategic sectors. Their appointments are a reflection of RPC's growing reputation in this area and complete another important step in our plan."

RPC now has around 260 lawyers, including 60 partners. The firm has a full-service practice aimed at clients in the media sector.