Addleshaw Goddard has hired former King & Wood Mallesons managing partner William Boss, alongside two other real estate partners.

Boss will be joined at Addleshaws by real estate partners Simon Tager and Michael Scott, with KWM real estate managing associate Luke Harvey also joining as a partner.

Boss, who previously also co-headed KWM's real estate practice, counts Marks & Spencer and the Crown Estate among his clients. He stepped down from the role of European managing partner at the start of this year, only a year into his term. He has been a partner at the firm since 1998.

Leona Ahmed, Addleshaws' head of real estate, said: "This latest investment is very much a part of our significant commitment to the real estate sector and consistent with Addleshaw Goddard's wider strategic goals. We have for some time been looking to augment our team, and the skills and profile of these partners are massively complementary to the existing team, as well as bringing new opportunities for the combined group."

Boss becomes the latest senior figure to resign from KWM's struggling European arm in recent weeks.

In late October, a planned recapitalisation of the business was halted after UK investments funds head Michael Halford, private equity partner Jonathan Pittal, corporate partner Andrew Wingfield and former managing partner Rob Day resigned from the firm.

Halford moved to Goodwin, which later picked up four more private equity funds partners: Shawn D'Aguiar, Patrick Deasy, Ed Hall and Ajay Pathak. Day and Wingfield joined Proskauer Rose in London.

KWM Europe is currently in crisis, with the European management team looking at options including a merger after partners voted against a £14m recapitalisation of the business, which if approved, would have also secured financial assistance from the Asian arms of the firm.

Dentons is in discussions to merge with the European business, with KWM's own China arm also thought to be interested in taking on all or part of the business. Other firms interested in lawyers at the firm include DLA Piper and Greenberg.

If a whole-firm merger is not secured, the firm could go into pre-pack administration and be broken up, with different firms taking on teams of lawyers.

KWM operates three financially separate partnerships under a Swiss verein structure, following the mergers of China's King & Wood, Australia's Mallesons Stephens Jaques and the UK's SJ Berwin.