Pinsent Masons has hired Norton Rose Fulbright partner Anthony Morton to spearhead its financial services practice in Frankfurt.

Morton was a banking and finance partner at Norton Rose for six years. Previously, he worked for Milbank and Linklaters, according to his LinkedIn profile.

He has experience with export credit finance, project finance, asset finance and restructuring and distressed solutions. He also has advised financial institutions, companies and funds in the areas of project/infrastructure finance and export finance, acquisition finance, syndicated lending, financial restructurings and general banking matters.

Pinsent Masons said Morton will be the financial services cornerstone of the Frankfurt office, which opened just over a year ago.

"We are working on achieving the critical mass to be credible in our financial services practice in Frankfurt," said Rainer Kreifels, head of Pinsent Masons Germany, noting that additional hires will be needed to further bolster the practice.

He declined to specify how many additional hires the firm hopes to make, but said another addition to the practice is "very far along in the pipeline."

"Frankfurt is a major center for financial services, particularly for banks and investment managers and it's fantastic to be able to strengthen our capabilities so significantly there through the appointment of Anthony," the firm's head of financial services, Alexis Roberts, said in a statement. "Our clients are multinational and complex institutions and Anthony's deep sector knowledge and legal experience within the sector will enable us to better support them,"

Norton Rose did not immediately respond to a request for comment.