Jeffery Norton of O'Melveny & Myers. Courtesy photo.

Jeffery Norton, a corporate finance partner who spent 12 years helping Linklaters grow its U.S. presence before moving to Dechert, has returned to O'Melveny & Myers, where he started his career.

Norton is the second corporate finance lateral hire by litigation-heavy O'Melveny in about a month; in mid-October, the firm added Jason Kaplan, an aviation finance partner, from Hughes Hubbard & Reed. The additions could signal O'Melveny's interest in boosting its corporate practices through lateral hiring, in the wake of failed merger talks between the firm and Allen & Overy.

Norton started at O'Melveny on Nov. 1 after completing a two-year stint as a partner at Dechert the day before, he said in an interview. Before that, he was the U.S. co-managing partner and head of banking at Linklaters.

"I'd reached out because I heard that O'Melveny wanted to expand in the finance space, in the U.S. and globally," Norton said. "Once I knew they were recommitting to be [a top firm] in this space, I wanted to be a part of it."

Norton's practice focuses on public and private finance, with an emphasis on leveraged credits and bonds, according to his LinkedIn page, and includes representation of private equity firms, financial institutions and direct lenders, among others. He also focuses on clients in the telecommunications and media industries, according to an announcement of his hire.

Norton spent the first 20 years of his career at O'Melveny and said he sees his return as more of a homecoming than a lateral move. He said he joined Linklaters in 2005 because he was excited for the opportunity to have an international platform and because of changes that had been going on at O'Melveny related to its acquisition of a private equity boutique, but often wondered how things would have been if he'd never left.

In his previous term at O'Melveny, Norton was head of banking. He said he's not looking for a leadership title this time around, but just wanted to be back at the firm where he built his career.

"It is the O'Melveny I grew up with: the culture, the people, the quality work," he said. "The way we work and the way we deliver services to our clients has gotten a lot more sophisticated and a lot more digital than it used to be, but at the end of the day, it's still contracts law and it's still debt."

A Dechert representative didn't respond to a request for comment about Norton's move sent late Monday.