Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP) has appointed its first-ever Russia and CIS tax head with the hire of Salans' global tax co-head Evgeny Timofeev.

Timofeev joined BLP earlier this month to take up the new role after four years as a partner at Salans, including three as the firm's global tax chief. His clients include L'Oreal and Russian Alcohol.

Salans' fellow global tax co-head Sandra Hazan will continue to head up the practice at the firm.

BLP tax head Michael Wistow said: "The appointment of Evgeny is an exciting development for the rapidly expanding Russian-based tax practice. He is top ranked for international advisory work and will provide even greater depth on the contentious tax side."

The firm first launched a dedicated Moscow tax practice in February last year with the hire of senior lawyer Andrey Shpak from PricewaterhouseCoopers as a partner. Shpak is head of tax structuring for the firm in Moscow.

The news follows the hire of Linklaters banking and finance managing associate Oleg Khokhlov as a partner for BLP's Russia arm last month.

BLP currently has around 90 lawyers in its Moscow base. The firm also relocated former finance head Simon Allan to the office at the start of this year in a bid to boost its English law capability in the region.