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.