Weil Gotshal & Manges has secured a notable hire for its London finance practice with the addition of Linklaters banking partner Stephen Lucas.

Lucas will join the US firm as soon as he has served his notice period. At Weil, he will work alongside London finance head Jacky Kelly and structured finance partner Steven Ong, as well as recent recruit James Hogben, a former Ashurst banking partner.

He is both English-qualified and a member of the New York Bar, and at Linklaters worked with clients including Citibank, Barclays and Goldman Sachs.

He has worked on deals including the £10.3bn debt restructuring of ball-bearing manufacturer Schaeffler, where he advised a consortium of banks comprising UBS, Royal Bank of Scotland, UniCredit, Commerzbank and LBBW.

Lucas' hire comes after London finance partner Michael Nicklin left Weil to join Ropes & Gray in Hong Kong earlier this year, while high yield specialist Peter Schwartz left in October last year to join the City arm of Milbank Tweed Hadley & McCloy.

The news come just over four months after the US firm recruited Hogben from Ashurst. The banking partner, who stepped down from Ashurst's partnership in March 2010, has particular expertise in cross-border leveraged finance and acquisition finance transactions.