Cooley has made a significant addition to its fast-growing London office with the hire of Hogan Lovells' international product law head, Rod Freeman.

Freeman (pictured), who joined legacy Lovells in 2000, has been a partner at the firm for 13 years. In his role as practice head he led a team covering multiple areas of expertise, including product liability litigation, product-related B2B disputes, product safety and regulatory compliance issues, and international product recalls.

He will be replaced in his role at Hogan Lovells by Baltimore partner Lauren Colton, who is a member of the firm's core life sciences committee.

Cooley London managing partner Justin Stock said: "Rod's experience working with major technology companies in matters such as international product launches, compliance issues and product litigation complements our focus on the global tech and innovation landscape."

The US firm's London office – which launched in January 2015 with the hire of 20 partners from Edwards Wildman and Morrison & Foerster – took in $47m (£37.6m) in revenue during 2016. The firm made four lateral hires in London during the year and by February 2017, office headcount stood at 80 lawyers, almost 50% up on its total at launch.

A Cooley team advised Snapchat parent company Snap on its $3bn (£2.4bn) initial public offering in March, while a cross-border team including London partner Ryan Naftulin recently acted for Softbank on a $502m (£388m) funding round for UK tech startup Improbable.

In a statement, Hogan Lovells said: "We have a superb team of highly specialised, client-focused and innovative product lawyers within our London team, who specialise in managing international work. We're looking forward to the further growth of our London practice, which boasts several homegrown 'rising stars'."