Four IP lawyers have joined Kirkland & Ellis, including a trio from Allen & Overy (A&O), as the US firm bolsters its new practice following the hire of former A&O global IP head Nicola Dagg earlier this year.

Dagg – whose move to Kirkland was announced this May – has joined the US firm's London office this week with the quartet, two of who are joining as partners.

A&O IP senior associate Daniel Lim, who has been at the magic circle firm since 2015, joins Kirkland's London office with Dagg as a partner. He focuses on life science patent litigation, particularly in the pharma industry, diagnostics and the emerging fields of precision medicine and cell and gene therapy.

Former A&O IP associate Katie Coltart has also joined Kirkland as a partner. She left A&O in 2015, joining KJC Legal as a consultant. Coltart focuses her practice on patent litigation, particularly in the life sciences and tech sectors.

A&O associates Jin Ooi and Steven Baldwin have also joined Kirkland.

Dagg told Legal Week: "We are focused on rebuilding a crème de la crème intellectual property litigation team to serve on the most complex international patent litigation and technically rich cases for some of the biggest global names. We want to serve life sciences and tech clients and we are a team that has the skillset from both a technical and experience perspective."

The team will focus on patent litigation and trade secret litigation work, while Dagg said the aim is for Kirkland's London business to be "fundamentally intertwined" with the firm's international IP practice, with the teams working with the same clients and on the same cases on both sides of the Atlantic.

She added that while the firm will initially focus on organic growth following the arrival of the team alongside her, Kirkland will look at hiring more junior lawyers.

"It's fundamental to the way we lawyer our cases – we need our young lawyers to really show their stuff in these cases. It's likely that we'll go to the market to hire the energetic, brainy lawyers that will gel the team together and get that high standard of lawyering that we want."

Dagg left A&O earlier this year after 12 years at the firm, having been promoted to global head of IP last year. She acts on the enforcement and licensing of patents, and she has also acted on numerous disputes involving trade marks, copyright, designs and breach of confidence.

Kirkland, which dethroned Latham & Watkins as the world's largest law firm by revenue in 2017 after taking in $3.165bn, has been picking off some of the top corporate and private equity partners around the world, including Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer heavyweight David Higgins.

The firm is also set launch its second continental Europe base, in Paris, after recruiting a pair of Linklaters partners in the French capital.