Hogan Lovells has boosted its Moscow office with the hire of a four lawyer arbitration and litigation team from Linklaters.

The team, which joins on 30 January, is headed by Alexei Dudko, who joins as partner, and includes one senior associate and two associates, bringing Hogan Lovells litigation and arbitration practice in Moscow to seven qualified lawyers.

Dudko was previously senior counsel and head of Linklaters' dispute resolution team in Moscow, and the magic circle firm's only listed litigation and arbitration lawyer above associate level in Russia.

His practice covers a range of arbitration and Russian-based court litigation, as well as a significant investigations practice.

Prior to joining Linklaters in 2000, he worked in a number of in-house roles at Russian companies, as well as working for the Moscow-based International Commercial Arbitration Court at the Russian Chamber of Commerce.

Patrick Sherrington (pictured), co-head of the litigation, arbitration, and employment practice at Hogan Lovells, said: "A vibrant Russian disputes practice is important to our global litigation and arbitration practice, and to Hogan Lovells as a whole. Alexei is a first rate disputes lawyer and he will allow us to continue our expansion into areas such as investigations."

Wishing Dudko and his team well, a spokesman for the Linklaters said: "Linklaters retains a robust litigation practice in Moscow and we expect to maintain our strong reputation in this area and to continue to grow the practice worldwide."