Dentons has expanded its London office with the hire of two partners from rival international firms.

Greg Hammond, international head of oil and gas (corporate) at Eversheds Sutherland, and Bonnie Calnan, real estate partner at BCLP, will boost Dentons' City base.

Hammond joined legacy Eversheds in 2013 from the London office of U.S. firm Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld. He previously spent a decade as a partner at White & Case.

At Eversheds, Hammond's major deals included advising China National Petroleum Corp on its $1.76bn investment into the Abu Dhabi Company for Onshore Petroleum Operations concession in 2017.

Calnan joined legacy Berwin Leighton Paisner in 2005. She was made partner in 2013 and is the second BCLP partner to join Dentons in recent months. Former BCLP India group head Deepa Deb, who previously led legacy BLP's residential group, left for Dentons last year.

The departures follow several from the firm, which merged last year.

Head of private client litigation Rupert Ticehurst left in the same month as Deb, while other partners quit in 2017 to join firms that included CMSWhite & CaseMcDermott Will & Emery, and King & Spalding.

However BCLP has also made hires since the merger: Mukul Chawla QC from Foundry Chambers; Elizabeth Hicks, a family law partner from Irwin Mitchell; and Tom Eldridge, a project finance partner from Mayer Brown.