Weil Gotshal & Manges has strengthened its London finance practice with the hire of international finance partner Mark Donald from Hogan Lovells.

Donald, who handed in his notice this week and will join the US firm's City base later in the year, focuses on domestic and cross-border leveraged and acquisition finance, real estate finance and fund financing.

He will work alongside Weil's recent finance recruit Stephen Lucas, who joined last year from Linklaters.

At Hogan Lovells Donald has worked with clients including Credit Suisse, Lloyds Banking Group and Bank of Scotland, and in 2008 he led a team at legacy Lovells advising on five financing deals for Bank of Scotland in just two months, working with lawyers from the firm's offices in Frankfurt, Munich, Paris, New York and Amsterdam.

The hire is further evidence of Weil's increasingly aggressive approach to lateral recruitment in the City, coming on the back of the hire of a four-partner funds team from Clifford Chance, as well as the additions of restructuring duo Adam Plainer and Paul Bromfield from Jones Day.

Weil's London managing partner Mike Francies has confirmed that the firm will continue to strengthen the London office, with more lateral hires planned in finance, restructuring and financial regulatory.

He commented: "We have already demonstrated the real tangible benefits of having partners of the calibre of Stephen Lucas, Adam Plainer and Paul Bromfield joining the office with some high-profile matters including MF Global. We are committed to building out further."

For more on MF Global, see Weil and Ashurst head up administration first in new post-Lehman regime.