Bird & Bird has made a pair of lateral partner hires for its City base, including Olswang's former head of commercial litigation, Steven Baker.

The top 15 UK firm has also hired a partner for its real estate practice, with Ed Cooke joining from DLA Piper. Both are already at Bird & Bird, with Cooke joining at the end of December and Baker in early January.

Baker has been a partner at Olswang since 2002 and was head of commercial litigation until May 2010. He is also a former partner at Holman Fenwick Willan.

His hire will bring headcount in Bird & Bird's dispute resolution group to 12 partners. He will also take a key role in the international dispute resolution group, but without a specific management role.

Bird & Bird chief executive David Kerr commented: "Steven will be playing a leading role in developing our international contentious capability. His sector focus and clear understanding of client service fit clearly with Bird & Bird's ongoing growth strategy.

Meanwhile, Cooke, whose practice focuses on construction, has specialist knowledge in data centres and the firm has handed him a brief to pull together work from its IT and communication and energy sector groups with its real estate practice.

He qualified at DLA Piper and was promoted to partnership in 2008, and becomes the sixth partner in Bird & Bird's real estate group.

Bird & Bird real estate co-head Jonathan Baker commented: "Ed's arrival is great news for the [practice group]. Our practice is a key provision for our sector groups and Ed's experience with data centres, energy and sports projects perfectly complement our team."

Bird & Bird grew its total fee earner headcount by 3% last year with a number of hires in its European offices as well as in London. It most recently bulked up its City energy team with the hire of former Dundas & Wilson infrastructure co-head Andrew Renton in December.