Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP) has strengthened its finance practice with the hire of Simon Small from Ashurst, 
who will join the firm towards the end of this year.

Small, who joined Ashurst from Linklaters in 2006, will be part of BLP's banking & capital markets group.

He has experience in capital markets transactions across a range of asset classes including residential mortgages, trade receivables, auto loans, credit cards, commercial real estate and project bonds. He also advises on corporate trusts.

His departure takes the number of partners to leave Ashurst since May 2010 to 26.

At Linklaters, Small was a partner for 11 years and was one of the partners to found the magic circle firm's securitisation business.

Small's hire comes six months after BLP concluded a restructuring of its finance practice, which saw a number of partners leave the firm or join other practices with the aim of focusing the practice on more profitable areas of work.

BLP has since made a number of hires in its finance department, including Paul Simcock from US firm Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom, who joined as a partner.

In addition, in April BLP hired Keith Wilson, previously a partner at Paul Hastings Janofsky & Walker. Wilson, who prior to joining Paul Hastings was a partner at legacy Lovells, headed up the finance team in the US firm's London office.

BLP finance chief Matthew Kellett commented: "Simon has considerable experience across structured finance in a broad range of asset classes and he is well-placed to deliver high quality advice 
on all aspects of complex capital structures."