Mayer Brown has expanded its London office with the addition of Peter Pears. He will join the capital markets team as partner, having previously been at Clifford Chance for the last 12 years as a senior associate, according to his LinkedIn. Pears acts on a range of domestic and international capital markets offerings, with his clients including international financial institutions, major corporations, sovereigns and municipalities. He has significant experience in sustainable debt and ESG principles. Norton Rose Fulbright appointed Madhavi Gosavi as head of banking and finance, Europe, Middle East and Asia effective 1 January 2022. Gosavi has spent 24 years at the firm and succeeds Chris Brown who has held the leadership role since 2019. With the appointment she has also assumed a position on the firm's EMEA management committee alongside four new committee members. Eversheds Sutherland has added partner Rob Phillips to its real estate litigation team in its latest lateral hire. He joins from top 100 U.K. law firm Hugh James, where he was head of property litigation for eight years. The move is a return for Phillips, who previously spent eight years at Eversheds after joining as a newly qualified solicitor in 2004. He has a range of experience advising on a broad range of property disputes including development, freehold and commercial matters. Partner Tom Pringle has moved to Gowling WLG to head up the firms restructuring and insolvency team in London. He leaves Womble Bond Dickson after six years at the firm, according to his LinkedIn. Prior to that, Pringle was part of Pinsent Masons banking and restructuring team. His expertise lies in providing strategic advice in times of distress to lenders, insolvency practitioners, directors and stakeholders. CMS has added Toby Sears as a partner to its intellectual property (IP) practice, as he joins the firm from Allen & Overy where he was a senior associate. Sears had been at A&O for just over four years, and has experience working on IP matters in the technology and life sciences sectors. His arrival means the London IP team at CMS now has 16 partners in all, supported by over 130 lawyers. Irwin Mitchell has appointed its first head of responsible business, as Kate Fergusson joins the firm from Pinsent Masons, where she had been since 2005. Mitchell's appointment follows the recent recruitment by Irwin Mitchell of a diversity and inclusion manager, as well as an environmental and sustainability manager, as the firm looks to boost its ESG credentials. Travers Smith has expanded its offering with the appointment of Sanjay Bhandari as non-executive adviser, starting a three-year term on 1 January 2022. He has spent 15 years specialising in litigation, fraud and white-collar crime at Herbert Smith Freehills and Baker McKenzie, and subsequently held multiple roles whilst partner at EY. Bhandari has significant experience in professional services, financial services, life sciences, consumer products and government and public services. Eversheds has added a partner to its banking ranks, hiring Christopher Williams from Linklaters where he was counsel. He has spent the last 15 years at Linklaters, beginning as a trainee. Williams focuses predominantly on complex cross-border corporate acquisition financings, involving public takeovers and private acquisitions and general corporate financing matters. Clifford Chance has elected partner Alexandra Davidson as its latest head of global funds and investment, succeeding Mark Shipman who has led the team for over a decade. Davidson is a partner in the firm's private funds London practice where she has been for over five years. UK Government Legal Department lawyer Nicolette Sanders has also joined Eversheds Sutherland as legal director. Sanders has 16 years of government experience, including advising the full range of business units on a broad and stretching spectrum of legal issues, leading the departments work on EU Exit "No Deal" planning and coordinating COVID-19-related legal issues. Kirkland & Ellis has hired regulatory partner James Roslington to its London office. Roslington has spent the last year as director of operations at consulting company Libya-Analysis, and previously spent seven years at associate levels at Hogan Lovells, according to his LinkedIn profile. He will advise on financial services law and regulation as well as training, business development and financial services knowledge management in the firm's London office. DAC Beachcroft has bolstered its global insurance practice in London with a double lateral hire. Partners Ian Plumley and Jon Ogle join from Clyde & Co and Norton Rose Fulbright respectively. Plumley was a partner in Clydes' property, liability and cyber team for over ten years - and has recently been heavily involved in advising on business interruption claims caused by COVID-19. Meanwhile, Ogle spent four and a half years as a partner at Norton Rose, joining in 2017 according to his LinkedIn. K&L Gates has added Watson Farley & Williams partner to its London team. Pete O'Hare has joined the firm's finance practice, advising banks, financial institutions and operators in the aviation sector on high profile financing deals and transactions. He was at Watson Farley as partner in the aviation team for two year according to his LinkedIn profile. In a busy month for Eversheds hiring, it ended January with a corporate duo hired from Dentons, partners Martin Mankabady and Adriana Cotter. Mankabady was at Dentons for six years and led its insurance group as global chair while Cotter was at the firm for just two years. They specialise in corporate, regulatory and restructuring work for U.K. and international insurance and reinsurance companies.