Paul Hastings may not have always been as visible as some of its US peers when it comes to City recruitment, but that stance looks set to change in the wake of the firm's high-profile recruitment of Linklaters corporate heavyweight Roger Barron and DLA private equity partner  Anu Balasubramanian within the last week.

London managing partner Ronan O'Sullivan says the firm is now on a mission to build up its City corporate transactional practices, with the latest partner additions "a catalyst" for further corporate and private equity growth.

He concedes that the transactional business has been "a little underweight" in the City to date but believes "now is the right time" to build, with a series of lateral partner hires planned during the course of the year.

The firm currently has about 27 partners in London, 15 of who will have a transactional remit once Barron and Balasubramanian arrive. O'Sullivan expects to add further partners, predicting that total London lawyer count is likely to rise from 85 at present to more than 100 during the course of this year.

Corporate veteran Barron spent 27 years at Linklaters, including 17 as a partner, and is set to help lead Paul Hastings' efforts to build its M&A practice.

During his time at the magic circle firm he worked on a host of big mandates, with a particular focus on sectors including energy, utilities and telecoms, acting as relationship partner for National Grid.

Balasubramanian, meanwhile, joined DLA Piper as a partner in 2013 from Kirkland & Ellis. She specialises in private equity transactions, cross-border acquisitions and divestitures, management equity plans and joint venture arrangements. Her key clients include Abry Partners and Oaktree Capital, with O'Sullivan keen to leverage these – and other – relationships.

He says: "Anu is extremely driven and has great connections with her clients. With her focus and drive she will help us accomplish what we want to achieve in private equity in London and Europe."

He adds that the firm had wanted to build out its PE offering to bring it in line with the expansion it has achieved in its City finance team during the past three years. This practice has gone from 12 to 45 lawyers since the end of 2014.

Significant City finance hires include restructuring and debt finance heavyweight David Ereira from Linklaters in 2015, and legacy Berwin Leighton Paisner's head of structured debt and capital markets Paul Severs in the same year.

The firm also picked up a trio of Ashurst City finance partners in 2016, though the most high profile of what had been a four-partner group – Nigel Ward – never joined, changing his mind after his hire had been announced and instead of opting to stay at Ashurst.

O'Sullivan adds: "If you look at our investments in structured finance, collaterised loan obligations and credit funds work in the City in recent years, we've built a formidable finance bench.

"When we invested in finance we did it fully and properly and we expect to build our corporate presence in the same way over time."

O'Sullivan says the aim is to create a City private equity offering that can enhance Paul Hastings' relationships with key US clients such as Starwood, HIG Capital, Oaktree and Vector Capital and offer them more service across the UK and Europe.

The firm clearly has its chequebook out but with a host of its US rivals among those boosting their City buyout teams in recent months, it will not be the only firm on the lookout for fresh talent.