McDermott Will & Emery is beefing up its energy expertise with four hires from King & Spalding, the firm announced Tuesday.

Neil Levy, David Tewksbury and Bruce Richardson have joined the firm as partners in the corporate transactional practice, and Stephanie Lim has joined as of counsel. They will all be based in McDermott's Washington, D.C., office and have experience in the energy sector representing independent power producers, marketers, trade associations, interstate pipelines, local distribution companies and energy asset managers and private equity firms.

Levy, Tewksbury and Richardson joined King & Spalding as partners in 2008 as partners from Kirkland & Ellis. Levy co-chaired King & Spalding's global energy practice.

Harris Siskind, global head of the firm's corporate and transactional practice and a partner in Miami, said in an interview that the group brought to McDermott a highly specialized industry focus.

"I think our firm has consistently tried to be a top specialist in given industries," he said, adding that the group will increase McDermott's ability to provide more services to energy-specific clients. "Adding an industry specialization focus has been a differentiating factor for us, and to give full service to clients in the energy space, we needed top lawyers to round out that practice."

Siskind said McDermott's corporate and transactional practice—which has just under 450 attorneys firmwide—has focused in recent years on a few specific specializations in addition to energy, including health care, insurance and real estate. Notably, the firm hired a team of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld attorneys in March 2019 as well as an eight-partner group from Drinker Biddle & Reath in September 2019.

Siskind said that in each of the last three years, the practice area has grown by at least 30 lateral partners, largely in small groups, and he expects that to continue this year.

"We will continue to add at the same pace in the transactions practice while focusing on things we do well," he said, adding that while the firm does consider solo laterals, hiring is more focused on bringing in groups.

King & Spalding did not immediately respond to requests for comment.