Joe Kohler – Reed Smith

Reed Smith has hired Deutsche Bank's managing director of legal, corporate and investment banking to its London office.

Joe Kohler joins the firm as a partner in its financial industry group after almost 19 years at Deutsche Bank.

He spent seven years as director of the bank's legal, structured credit and rates products department and 12 years as managing director of legal and global co-head of global markets, according to his LinkedIn profile.

Prior to joining the bank, Kohler spent seven years at Linklaters where he trained and qualified as an associate.

Ed Estrada, global chair of Reed Smith's financial industry group, said: "Joe is immensely respected and regarded within Deutsche Bank and throughout the investment bank community, and his reputation for providing steady and sound leadership on complex transaction and litigation matters as in-house counsel is an invaluable asset that our clients will certainly benefit from."

Throughout his career, Kohler managed Deutsche Bank's legal department, working on transactions the bank conducted as well as on regulatory developments such as IBOR and Brexit. He also managed the bank's response to downgrades and recovery efforts during the credit crisis of 2008.

This is the first London hire of the year for Reed Smith. It last boosted the base after adding former Johnson & Johnson EMEA legal director of M&A Iqbal Hussain to its life sciences practice in the city last September.