RPC has made its sixth partner hire in four months with the appointment of DLA Piper intellectual property (IP) and technology specialist Mark Crichard in London.

Crichard, who joined DLA in 2000 from Garretts, has worked with major clients including ITV, Easyjet, British Airways and Accenture, advising on matters including procurement, outsourcing, cloud computing and cross-border data protection compliance.

In 2010, Crichard led a team advising King's College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust on a £300m public private partnership with Serco and Guy's & St Thomas' Hospital, while the same year he also led a DLA team advising easyJet on its tie-up with the Lowcostholidays group.

"[Mark's] arrival brings us that much closer to our goal of becoming one of the leading IP and technology law practices in the country," said RPC's head of IP and technology Jeremy Drew. "We already have great strength in depth, with our wider group comprising over 40 lawyers, including 10 partners.

"We see a real opportunity for specialists that genuinely understand client needs in this area. His appointment brings us just the type of firepower we need to help us compete for the best work in what is a very fast moving area."

His tenure at RPC, which starts tomorrow (19 March), follows a number of partner hires for the firm, including Anthony Shatz, who joined from SJ Berwin earlier this month, as well as a three-partner corporate team, which moved from Wragge & Co at the start of the year.

"RPC is bucking the trend at a time when many of the large City firms have been scaling back their IP and technology practices," added RPC managing partner Jonathan Watmough. "High quality technology advice is now a vital ingredient of many of our clients' businesses – and that's true across every sector."