A flurry of high-profile hires see Milbank Tweed aim to regain some UK law momentum. Alex Newman reports

Milbank Tweed Hadley & McCloy may have opened in London more than 30 years ago, but it is only in recent months that its recruitment efforts have really started to gather pace. Last month's hire of Norton Rose financial disputes partner Charles Evans capped a run of high-profile new joiners for the US firm's City arm, with the appointment marking the fifth lateral partner addition in as many months. 

It followed the recruitment of former Linklaters projects veteran Clive Ransome and Mayer Brown leveraged finance partner Neil Caddy in August, while Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer's Nicholas Spearing, the office's first competition partner, joined in June – a year after Milbank narrowly missed out on hiring SJ Berwin's then EU and competition head Stephen Kon, who opted to remain at the City firm where he is now senior partner. 

This year also saw the hire of Linklaters' well-regarded retail industry group co-head Mark Stamp, who joined Milbank's corporate practice in May. 

Overall, Milbank will have boosted its City partner count by a third over the past 12 months, with the firm expecting to have 20 partners in London by the end of the year, compared with 15 at the same point last year. 

And the expansion is not just at partner level. London managing partner Russell Jacobs confirmed that Milbank will be taking on two English law trainees from next year, rising to four or five in 2014, making it the latest in a long line of US firms aiming to build its junior lawyer ranks organically. Excluding these latest expansion plans, total lawyer headcount has already doubled over the past few years from 35 to around 70, most of which are English-law qualified. 

Those outside the firm suggest the change in tactics is largely down to UK-qualified tax partner Jacobs, who took over the helm in March 2010 from Phillip Fletcher, and put building up the office to the fore of his strategy. 

While Fletcher has come in for criticism for being too focused on bringing in star names, under Jacobs the firm is seen as being more flexible in terms of recruitment and, those Linklaters' hires aside, more willing to look to a wider pool of firms. 

Not that he can take all the credit for this as in April 2009, Milbank brought in heavyweight litigation partner Julian Stait from DLA Piper – then the firm's first hire in London for more than two years. 

Commenting on the shift in stance, Jacobs maintains the flurry of arrivals was largely coincidental as Milbank had been "looking for both a Stamp and a Ransome" for five or six years – it just took a while to find them. He explains: "There's never been a diktat [from the US]. 

"We sometimes get a sort of child-like frustration that we want to grow, but we're very patient and there's a strong legacy to preserve."

In terms of practice focus, the London office follows the work for which the firm is most known globally: project finance and (to a lesser extent), litigation. On the corporate side, Milbank, like many in the City, is looking to bulk up its profile, though Stamp is honest about where the firm sits compared to its competitors. 

"Let's be upfront: Milbank isn't a traditionally well-known name, and that's partly why I've been brought in," he says. "We're looking to establish a brand and make that brand better known in a market. It's not easy, but it will come if the product is right."

While Stamp – who worked with clients such as Sainsbury's at Linklaters – has a high profile, rivals are blunt about the challenges the firm faces on the corporate front. One says: "They are not the A-team their projects people are held to be and they are not picking up the work they would probably be hoping for."

For now, it is a criticism Jacobs seems to be able to live with: "We can't be a magic circle firm, and we don't try to be one. We're not going to compete with Slaughter and May in the next contested M&A. But if it's in a sector where you're known or – in Mark's case – where there is a long-term relationship, clients will come to us."

Key recent mandates

• Advising Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation on its $7.3bn (£4.5bn) acquisition of RBS Aviation Capital
• Advising Virgin Media on a cash tender offer for outstanding notes and a $900m (£562m) and £400m note offering
• Advising O3b on its $1.2bn (£748m) financing for the construction and launch of a constellation of eight satellites