Linklaters has strengthened its US tax practice with the hire of a partner duo from Bingham McCutchen.

David Brockway and Jasper Howard join the magic circle firm's Washington DC office with immediate effect.

Brockway previously served as chief of staff of the Joint Committee on Taxation of the US Congress and specialises in international tax planning. He focuses on corporate acquisitions and disposals, cross border structured finance and asset-based finance transactions.

Howard acted as special counsel to the Internal Revenue Service chief counsel and focuses on mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures and cross border transactions.

Henk Vanhulle, Linklaters' global head of tax, said: "The appointment of David and Jasper will broaden our already strong global tax practice and reflects our commitment to deliver an integrated service to our clients in a heightened environment of government enforcement and global coordination among regulators."

Linklaters opened its Washington DC office in November 2012 to focus on tax, antitrust, litigation, and financial and contentious regulatory matters. It is led by New York co-managing partners Jeff Norton and Conrado Tenaglia, who oversee both US offices. The firm now has a team of more than 120 US lawyers in New York and Washington DC.

In its latest partner promotions round, Linklaters made up 24 lawyers including two in its New York office – Justin Storms (investment management) and Aaron Javian (banking).

In February this year Linklaters' former US co-chief and litigation head Larry Byrne joined Pepper Hamilton. Byrne headed up Linklaters' US litigation practice for four years from 2006 and became co-managing partner of the New York office in 2007, as well as co-head of the global US practice from 2009 to 2011.