Shearman & Sterling is to bolster its London practice with the hire of a three-lawyer team from Weil Gotshal & Manges in the City, including private equity partner Mark Soundy and tax partner Sarah Priestley.

The trio, who are set to join in the coming weeks, is completed by associate Simon Burrows, who will join as a partner.

Soundy, whose M&A practice has a particular focus on private equity and restructuring, joined Weil in 2004 from Travers Smith, where he worked for 17 years.

Last year he advised on mandates including Silverlake Capital's $1.3bn (£848m) purchase of shopping company Global Blue and the high-profile sale of TV presenter Graham Norton's production company So Television to ITV.

He has also represented private equity groups such as Apax Partners and Bridgepoint Capital, and was involved in setting up Weil's Dubai office.

Priestley, meanwhile has been at Weil since 1997, where she headed the firm's London corporate tax group. She has worked with clients including Lion Capital, Advent, HgCapital and BskyB.

Other previous mandates for Soundy include leading the firm's first piece of work for the Royal Bank of Scotland, when the firm advised the bank on the $300m (£196m) sale of its shares in luggage manufacturer Samsonite.

He also acted on the €5bn (£4.3bn) management buyout of Intelsat, which was backed by private equity firms Apax, Apollo, Madison Dearborn Partners and Permira.

Additionally, Soundy has advised All3Media on several deals including its takeover of Optomen and One Potato Two Potato, which TV chef Gordon Ramsay co-owns.