Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe is launching a regulatory practice in the City with the hire of two in-house lawyers from London-based liquidity provider Liquid Capital Markets (LCM).

The US firm is set to bring in LCM's head of legal, Sam Millar, and fellow legal counsel Tony Katz as partners next month. Millar initially joined LCM from Jones Day in 2008, with Katz following in 2009 from the Financial Services Authority (FSA).

Millar and Katz focus on contentious and non-contentious regulatory work, with particular expertise in regulatory investigations brought by bodies such as the FSA.

The hires will take the number of partners in Orrick's London office to 18, primarily operating across corporate, finance, litigation, intellectual property and antitrust.

London managing partner Anne O'Neill commented: "The hires fit in well with our offering in London – a lot of our clients here are in the technology space and Sam and Tony are well-placed to advise them on regulatory enforcement.

"They both have a history in private practice and will fit well into our office culturally."

The news comes as Orrick this month saw a two-partner London restructuring team led by European co-head of restructuring and insolvency Mark Fennessy depart for Dewey & LeBoeuf.

Liquid Capital is a liquidity provider for a range of European exchange-traded, fixed income, index and equity options.