Ashurst's outgoing litigation chief Michael Madden is set to join the London office of US firm Winston & Strawn.

Madden (pictured), whose departure from Ashurst was first reported by Legal Week yesterday (12 October), has been hired with a remit to launch a London commercial litigation practice for Winston. The firm is planning to recruit additional laterals in the coming months.

Winston currently has two City intellectual property litigation partners, Richard Price and Gareth Morgan, who joined the London office earlier this year from Taylor Wessing and DLA Piper, in addition to three partners in its corporate and finance practices.

The firm has not had commercial disputes capacity in London since the departure of litigation head Jamie Harrison and partner Kent Philips to Addleshaw Goddard in September 2009.

Madden, who made partner in Ashurst's dispute resolution practice in 1995 and became practice head in 2003, has experience in commercial litigation and arbitration, with a particular focus on disputes involving corporate acquisitions, divestitures and joint ventures. He will join Winston next month.

At Ashurst his practice has focused on real estate disputes as well as matters including financial, professional negligence and insolvency disputes. He has also been involved in international expansion of the firm's disputes practice during his time as litigation head, overseeing growth across Europe, Singapore and Hong Kong.

Winston London managing partner Thomas Benz said: "Our approach to growth is to hire leaders in their particular fields, and to then give them free rein to run and to develop the practice as they see fit.

"This is the case with Michael, who is hugely respected in the litigation space. We plan to do the same in other areas including arbitration and energy."

Edward Sparrow has replaced Madden as head of litigation at Ashurst.