King & Wood Mallesons' (KWM) former Europe head of fraud and investigations Ian Hargreaves is set to join Covington & Burling, as the last remaining European partners find new homes following last week's move into administration.

Hargreaves will join the US firm as a partner in its European dispute resolution practice following a vote early next week. He joined KWM in 2014 from Addleshaw Goddard, where he had spent two decades.

He specialises in major European white collar and related civil and regulatory issues, and in 2011 was part of a team acting for former BTA Bank chairman Mukhtar Ablyazov on a multi-billion-dollar misappropriation case.

His arrival at Covington will reunite him with a number of former KWM partners. Including Hargreaves, the US firm has taken on five partners from the firm in the past six months.

Former KWM global head of litigation Craig Pollack and disputes partners Louise Freeman, Elaine Whiteford and Greg Lascelles have all joined Covington's City base, following the hire of KWM's London litigation head Alex Leitch in 2015.

Leitch and Jeremy Wilson, co-chairs of Covington's European dispute resolution practice, said: "We are thrilled about Ian's decision to join our team, which reflects the commitment and momentum behind our growth strategy. There is no doubt that compliance and misconduct allegations are among the most business-critical issues facing clients across a number of industries, and the demand for advice in this area will continue to grow."

Elsewhere, accountancy giant EY's legal arm has recruited KWM's former Germany co-head Stefan Krueger.

Krueger, who has joined EY's TMT practice in Frankfurt, specialises in all areas of intellectual property and media law. In 2014, he was appointed as KWM's Germany co-managing partner alongside funds partner Sonya Pauls, before Pauls' departure for Clifford Chance in August last year.

He is also a former SJ Berwin partnership board member and took a role on the international management committee following the 2013 KWM merger.

KWM Europe's filing for administration last week represented the end of the line for the legacy SJ Berwin business and the biggest ever UK law firm failure.

Around 50 members of staff have been kept on by the joint administrators, Quantuma partners Andrew Hosking and Sean Bucknall, to help with the process of winding down the business, with several hundred staff made redundant last week.

The first administrator's report is due to be filed by today (24 January).