DLA Piper has hired Kirkpatrick & Lockhart Preston Ellis Gates' London tax chief, Richard Woolich, as the firm continues to beef up its City presence.

Woolich joined the firm earlier this month and will head DLA Piper's European real estate tax team.

He was a partner at legacy London firm Nicholson Graham & Jones, which became part of Kirkpatrick in 2005. At
Nicholson Graham, he advised Regalian Properties, the residential and office development company, on a £69m deal to sell a 90-year-old leasehold interest in Marble Arch Tower in 2001.

The hire is the latest in a series of London appointments by DLA Piper. Last month the firm hired former Berwin Leighton Paisner banking partner Julian Ogley, just days after recruiting Bingham McCutchen City banking partner Sarah Coucher.