Goodwin Procter will begin taking on London trainees on an annual basis this autumn, after bringing in its first intake earlier this year as part of its large-scale team hire from King & Wood Mallesons (KWM).

The US firm is set to take on three City trainees this September, after five joined from KWM in January alongside six partners and 15 associates, amid the collapse of KWM's European arm.

Goodwin now has about 70 lawyers in London, including 21 partners.

London co-head Samantha Lake Coghlan said: "We're at a different size now – both in headcount and breadth of practice. We can give people the right experience and it made us realise now is the right time to be looking at expanding our trainee offering."

Goodwin has significantly expanded its London and wider European offering in recent years.

In 2015, the firm recruited former KWM corporate co-head Richard Lever to build out its European private equity offering, and later that year launched its first German office in Frankfurt with the hire of a four-partner team from Ashurst.

The European growth continued last year with the launch of a Paris office in April on the back of the hire of a KWM private equity team in the French capital. That team hire prompted KWM to take legal action against Lever and Goodwin, although this was subsequently dropped as part of the deal to hire the 26-strong team earlier this year.