Mayer Brown has added two partners to its London office with the hires of Travers Smith pensions partner Andrew Block and Apollo Global Real Estate GC Jeremy Kenley.

Block, who made partner at Travers in 2009, joined the firm in 2008 after nine years at Linklaters, where he trained. He advises on occupational pension schemes, as well as the pensions aspects of corporate transactions and listings.

Meanwhile, Kenley joined Mayer Brown in April after six years in in-house roles, including 18 months as general counsel at Apollo Global Real Estate, before which he spent four years as European general counsel at Citibank Property Investors.

He qualified at Allen & Overy and subsequently joined legacy Lovells in London before going in-house in 2006.

Apollo Global has yet to announce Kenley's replacement. The investment firm last year hired former O'Melveny & Myers private equity partner Paul Loynes as its first-ever European head of legal. Loynes is now based in London, reporting to global chief counsel John Suydam in New York.

The new recruits for Mayer Brown come after the firm boosted its property practice in March with the hire of real estate partner Chris Harvey from CMS Cameron McKenna to head up its City real estate investment team.

Mayer Brown also announced this week that London senior partner Sean Connolly will serve another five-year term in the management role after being re-elected by the firm's City equity partners.