Hogan Lovells has boosted its London energy team with the hire of Norton Rose Fulbright partner Arun Velusami.

Velusami will join Hogan Lovells' City finance practice, where he will also be a member of the firm's Africa practice, the energy and natural resources group and the infastructure, energy, resources and projects team (IERP).

He acts for lenders and sponsors on a variety of international energy projects and project financings but has a particular focus on power projects in Africa, where he has worked on thermal, solar, wind and hydropower projects for developers, lenders and governments.

Hogan Lovells' global IERP team head Adrian Walker said: "We are all about helping our clients improve people's lives. That means better access to power and infrastructure. The other side of the projects coin is improved return on investor capital, which is great for savers and pensioners. Arun is a class act and will work closely from London with our world-class infrastructure and energy capability. He will be a great fit with our global team."

Velusami was a partner at Norton Rose for seven years, having joined in 2006 from boutique firm Curtis Davis Garrard, where he was a senior associate. Before that he held roles at Shearman & Sterling and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer.

Hogan Lovells has 36 London finance partners and 130 finance partners globally. The energy and natural resources group is home to 59 London partners and 408 partners internationally. Clients of the energy and natural resources group include energy company Exelon, gold mining company AngloGold Ashanti, and oil and gas companies Shell and BP.

News of his hire comes shortly after Norton Rose Fulbright's merger with US firm Chadbourne & Parke went live in June.

Last month, Hogan Lovells more than tripled its office space in Birmingham in the run up to a restructuring of its support roles that will see 90 positions cut or moved away from London.