Shipping and insurance firm Ince & Co has strengthened its Dubai office with the hire of Charles Russell Speechlys Bahrain head of corporate Tom Briggs.

Briggs, who joins Ince as a partner, spent 15 years at Charles Russell Speechly and for the last three years was a partner and head of corporate in the firm's Bahrain office.

His practice focuses on corporate, finance and commercial law matters, including private equity deals, M&A, joint ventures and project finance.

In 2008 he spent six months as acting general counsel of airline Gulf Air in Bahrain where he advised on aircraft leasing, commercial matters and financings.

Ince & Co Dubai managing partner Rania Tadros said: "By continuing to grow our transactional capability in the Middle East and internationally we intend to further institutionalise our relationships with existing clients and target new ones."

Corporate head Stephen Jarvis said: "His appointment demonstrates the continued progress that we are making in enhancing our transactional capability in our chosen sectors across our international network."

Ince & Co's managing partner Jan Heuvels has stated that the firm's goal is to grow its transactional capabilities through organic growth, lateral hires or mergers while focusing on its five core sectors: shipping, insurance, energy, aviation and trade.

The adoption of this strategy was in response to a slow-down in disputes work which has hit the firm hard, leading to an 8.1% revenue contraction from 2013-14 to 2014-15, from £86.4m to £79.4m.

The firm has seen multiple partners exit over the last year including Singapore managing partner Richard Lovell who joined Reed Smith, Asia head of energy Martin David who left the firm to join Baker & McKenzie and shipping head Faz Peermohamed who left to become chief executive of the Norwegian Hull Club.

However, it has also made lateral hires in the last year including insurance partner Jennifer Donohue from Locke Lord, aviation partner Will Cooper who joined from the Export Credits Guarantee Department of the UK government and Duncan Bateson who joined from TLT, where he was head of shipping and international trade.