Simpson Thacher & Bartlett

Simpson Thacher & Bartlett has appointed Linklaters' former global tax head, its first partner hire in London in over a year.

Yash Rupal, who heads up the Magic Circle firm's London tax group, is set to join the U.S. firm in the U.K. where it currently has no tax partners. He has been a partner at Linklaters since 1996, and was appointed global tax head in 2007.

While at Linklaters, he advised consumer goods giant Unilever on its successful defence of Kraft Heinz's $143bn takeover bid in 2017, and the joint administrators of the defunct European arm of Lehman Brothers International on its appeal to the Supreme Court on withholding tax.

A Linklaters spokesperson said in a statement: "We can confirm that Yash Rupal is leaving the firm after more than 30 years, over which time he has made a valued contribution to Linklaters. He leaves as a friend with our best wishes."

Rupal is the latest in a string of lateral hires for Simpson Thacher in recent years, though most of the U.S. firm's corporate hires have come from Clifford Chance, which is where the office head Jason Glover left to launch Simpson's City funds practice in 2010.

In late 2018, Simpson Thacher hired CC M&A partner Amy Mahon to its London office.

In November, the firm promoted one lawyer to partner in London, with private funds lawyer Daniel Lloyd making the cut.