Herbert Smith Freehills (HSF) is adding three partners to its German disputes practice including a nine-lawyer team from litigation boutique Acker Goerling & Schmalz (AGS Legal).

The hires more than double the size of the firm's disputes practice in Germany and give HSF its first formal corporate crime offering in the country.

Arbitration partner Patricia Nacimiento is set to join HSF's Frankfurt office next month from Norton Rose Fulbright. She will work alongside existing arbitration and disputes partner Mathias Wittinghofer.

Meanwhile partners Helmut Goerling and Dirk Seiler head the nine-strong team joining from AGS Legal and will be responsible for establishing HSF's corporate crime and investigations practice in Germany.

The team will join HSF in Frankfurt on 1 May, with the additions taking the German dispute resolution practice to five partners and a total of 16 lawyers.

Goerling founded the law firm Goerling, which later became Goerling, Acker and Partners, and then AGS Legal.

Global head of disputes Justin D'Agostino said: "As Europe's largest and strongest economy, Germany is naturally a key market for the firm, especially in light of our strategy to grow our EMEA platform."

HSF opened its third German office in Duesseldorf in February this year. It launched with the arrival of arbitration and disputes partner Thomas Weimann from Clifford Chance. 

Recent mandates for the German arm include advising the country's biggest real estate company Vonovia as it made a counter offer to buy all of the shares in rival Deutsche Wohnen for €9.92bn (£7bn) in October 2015.