Goodwin Procter has hired Addleshaw Goddard financial restructuring partner Simon Thomas as a partner in its London office. Thomas, who had been a partner at Addleshaws since 2013, joins amid a rise in U.K. restructurings. Paul Lyons, co-chair of Goodwin's London office, said there had been a "significant increase in distress-led restructurings" and added Thomas would be a "tremendous resource".

Eversheds Sutherland has hired Addleshaw Goddard corporate partner Michael Birchall to lead its corporate team in Manchester. Birchall leaves after nearly 28 years at Eversheds, where he began as a trainee in 1990. Birchall went on gardening leave in December 2018, and will join Eversheds later this year.

Pinsent Masons has hired Ashurst partner planning Lucy Thomas, who specialises in development planning and compulsory purchase matters. She advises corporates, developers, development corporations and public sector bodies. She spent more than 20 years at Ashurst, where Lendlease, Berkeley Homes, Transport for London and Countryside Properties were included in her client base.

Bird & Bird has made another partner hire from Eversheds' Warsaw office, after recruiting office managing partner and head of TMT Tomasz Zalewski in January. Pawel Lipski joins Bird & Bird after 14 years with Eversheds, where he made partner in 2014. Lipski works on IP and IT matters covering  new technologies, data and consumer protection, and advertising and contract law.

KPMG has made its first hires for its new Legal Operations & Transformation Services (LOTS) function. The new offering will be headed by Nicola Brooks, who joins from Travers Smith where she was operations director. Joining Brooks is James Thomas, who has been appointed as head of legal technology and innovation, having been the global lead of legal technology at KPMG International since 2016.

Brooks will now support LOTS as part of her role. The LOTS offering will also include a team of transformation specialists from KPMG Boxwood – one business consultancy branch of the accountancy firm – working under Neill Whitaker and Simon McCall.

The auditing giant has also poached former Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer lawyer Peter Workman from fellow Big Four giant PwC, where he led the company's flexible lawyer offering. As a partner at KPMG, he will oversee a team of nine business structuring and transactions lawyers in an operation designed to complement the firm's existing legal practices across the U.K.

German firm Noerr has bolstered its Prague office with the hire of a five-strong transactions team from PwC's legal arm in the region. The team is led by the former legal managing partner at the PwC Prague office, Bořivoj Líbal, who will be an associated partner at Noerr and will co-head the Prague office together with corporate M&A CEE partner Barbara Kusak. Completing the team hire are associates Petr Kobylka, Michal Jekielek, Ondřej Řitička and Marek Poloni.

DLA Piper has bolstered its Leeds real estate practice by bringing in Susan Samuel from Eversheds Sutherland. Prior to joining Eversheds in 2012, she was a senior associate at Pinsent Masons. Samuel has specific expertise in the hospitality and leisure, consumer and senior living sectors, and joins DLA's City office a month after DWF real estate partner Lorraine Reader.

BLM has appointed its first head of commercial litigation with the hire of DMH Stallard partner Stuart Evans. Evans was a commercial dispute resolution partner at DMH Stallard and legacy firm Rawlinson Butler for more than 18 years according to LinkedIn, and a solicitor at Hogan Lovells prior to this for eight years.

German law firm Gleiss Lutz has hired a new M&A partner for its Frankfurt office. Dr Andreas Lohdefink joins from Shearman & Sterling's Frankfurt office where he spent nine years, first as a senior associate and then partner. He was also recently appointed as a visiting lecturer at the EBS University Law School and regularly lectures at the University of Frankfurt.