Addleshaw Goddard has strengthened its London and Manchester offices with two partner hires.

The national law firm added Taylor Wessing commercial partner Andrew Smith to its City base earlier this month, with Cobbetts real estate partner Stephen Kinsey to join the Manchester office later this month (31 May).

Smith, who specialises in commercial contracts including outsourcing, joint ventures and loyalty programmes, has advised clients including BA, Airmiles and Associated British Ports.

He will take the number of partners in Addleshaws' commercial group, which includes areas such as intellectual property, IT, outsourcing and commercial contracts, to eight.

Contentious and commercial managing partner Malcolm Pike said: "We're absolutely delighted to have Andrew join our team. He's a big name with some big clients and he is a great fit within our team – culturally and in terms of what we are trying to achieve.

"We've always had a strong commercial practice but this is about focusing it and growing it. We see lots of opportunities within his speciality areas, namely the payment services, travel, leisure and consumer sectors."

Kinsey, meanwhile, specialises in commercial and residential property investment and development as well as multi-property portfolios, site assembly, large-scale acquisitions and disposals, regeneration schemes, landlord and tenant management and secured lending. He has been a partner with Cobbetts for 12 years.

Recent work for Addleshaws' Manchester real estate team, which consists of six partners, include a December deal that saw ITV move the set of Coronation Street to a new MediaCityUK development in Manchester.