Hunton Andrews Kurth raids EY for team of nearly two dozen lawyers
Nearly a dozen lawyers have joined the City office of Hunton Andrews Kurth from Ernst & Young (EY) legal services arm, EY Law.
Partner and former head of EY’s energy services Charles Morrison joins alongside partners Dimitri Papaefstratiou, Simon Collier, Harry Brunt, counsel Joseph Lam, consultant Grant Henderson, and five associates.
The team joins the US law firm and will focus on transactions in the energy sector including oil and gas, renewable and thermal power, as well as emerging technologies of carbon capture, hydrogen and energy storage.
Since August 2023, the law firm has added more than two dozen lawyers to its office at the Gherkin, as part of its international growth strategy. This included another dip into EY Law after finance partners Alan Cunningham and Richard Skipper joined in October.
Commenting on the new team, managing partner Sam Danon stated that the group “aligns well with our international growth strategy, which is focused on ensuring that we’ve achieved critical mass in key practices, in core industry focus areas and in geographies where client demand is strong.”
Hunton Andrews Kurth London managing partner Ferdinand Calice added that its “energy-focused corporate and disputes teams in London have experienced tremendous growth over the past year, expanding our reach throughout Europe, the Middle East and Africa.”
EY started the year off by reportedly cutting 24 of its legal roles in its Financial Services Legal Advisory Services business.
This was the second redundancy round of legal cuts in the UK after the firm closed its Manchester-based, EY Riverview Law, in December 2023, with a loss of 55 jobs.
EY Law is reported to have around 200 lawyers in this department. It was revealed by Financial News in October that the Big Four firm was exploring a joint venture for its UK legal business, due to economic pressures.
The firm reported in October that its UK net revenue grew by a single-digit percentage over 2024, but its fee income remained flat due to a reduction in large cross border transactions.