US firm Goldberg Segalla is set to launch an office in London with the hire of legacy Barlow Lyde & Gilbert commercial risk and reinsurance head Clive O'Connell.

The office, Goldberg's first outside the US, will open in London's EC3 insurance district at No 1 Cornhill in April this year.

O'Connell will join Goldberg after leaving legacy Barlows last autumn on its merger with Clyde & Co – a tie-up which saw the Barlows brand disappear.

Goldberg, which has 10 offices across the US and a total of around 140 lawyers, focuses on civil litigation for corporates and serves as trial counsel for a number of Fortune 100 companies.

O'Connell joined Barlows in 1984 and made partner in 1989. He spent the last two years at the firm leading its commercial risk and reinsurance practice.

He said: "I have been looking to find the right home for my practice since the Clydes and Barlows merger and Goldberg was presented to me as an excellent opportunity by a mutual client.

"Reinsurance and complex insurance are very much global markets and New York and London are major centres for them, so Goldberg felt it was time to expand into the UK. We will grow further in the City, but organically, and it is also possible that at some point in the coming years there could be further expansion into Europe or elsewhere."

The move comes after Goldberg also hired former New York State Superintendent of Insurance James Wrynn to head its New York office and regulatory compliance practice last month.

A number of US firms have launched in the City in recent months, with Vedder Price opening its London office at the start of 2012 with the hire of former Clydes co-head of aviation finance Gavin Hill.

The merger between Barlows and Clydes went live on 1 November last year, creating a 270-partner firm with combined revenues of more than £300m.