Europe: Moves, mergers and openings

Belgian IT and telecoms boutique De Bauw &Maeyaert merged with full-service firm HuysmansTrenité van Doorne on 1st January 2002. The new firmoperates under the name Altius

Washington DC based Steptoe & Johnson has formallyestablished a Brussels office to support its domestic antitrust,trade and telecoms practice. The firm has recruited Dutch lawyerKees Jan Kuilwijk, formerly with Herbert Smith, andsenior telecoms and competition associate Maya Barr, fromWeil Gotshal & Manges, to lead the office

DLA has merged with its Brussels D&P alliancemember firm Price & Partners. The merged firm willoperate under the name of DLA, and will be co-headed byCharles Price and David Church

Koen Byttebier has joined Eversheds' Brusselsoffice as Of Counsel. Alongside his new role, he will continuehis academic responsibilities as professor of law at the VrijeUniversiteit Brussel

Lovells has appointed Melanie Willems as aprojects dispute resolution partner in its London office. Willems was previously at Ashurst Morris Crisp

The London office of Landwell, the UK correspondentlaw firm of PricewaterhouseCoopers, has hired RobertCarolina as a partner. Carolina joined the firm inJanuary 2002 from IP/IT niche firm Tarlo Lyons

Noel Deans has joined Landwell's London officeas an employment partner from Goodman Derrick

Morrison & Foerster has added Brian Batesas a corporate partner for its London office. Bates hasjoined from the Chicago office of Bell Boyd & Lloyd,where he was finance group head in the corporate department

Keith Jones has joined the EC, competition and tradegroup at Baker & McKenzie's London office. He waspreviously based in Norton Rose's London and Brusselsoffices

Hill Dickinson is set to merge with Manchester basedcommercial firm Gorna & Co. The new firm will retainthe name Hill Dickinson

UK national firm DLA has announced the return of twoex-partners, Michael Fiddy and Peter Bibby. Fiddy has rejoined the firm's Business Support andRestructuring group from his position as managing director ofFulham Football Club. Bibby has returned to the financialregulatory group from the UK Financial Services Authority, wherehe was Head of Enforcement (Retail Sales)

DLA has recruited seven lawyers from ChaffeStreet in Manchester for its Business Support andRestructuring practice. Among the new recruits is ShanSpencer, who led the corporate recovery team at ChaffeStreet

Iain Bowler and Nick Maltby have been appointedas partners in DLA's Commercial & Projects group,based in Leeds. Bowler, who joined in January 2002, waspreviously Director of Corporate Finance at industrial corporatedevelopers Gartland Whalley and Barker plc, while Maltby will move to DLA in March 2002 from theProjects and Commercial practice at Pinsent CurtisBiddle

Finnish law firm Hannes Snellman Attorneys At Law Ltdhas recruited Matti Kurkela, an international arbitratorand M&A lawyer, from mid-tier firm Dittmar &Indrenius

French mid-size firm Granrut Vatier Baudelot &Associés has entered into a strategic alliance with UKfirm Pinsent Curtis Biddle, effective January 2002. Thenew UK/French operation, known as Granrut, focuses onbanking, insurance and media law. Bâtonnier BernardVatier, Daniel Paquet, Martine Caillaud, Marie-Sylvie Vatier, AnnCreelman, Olivier Saumon and Yves-René Guillouhave not joined the alliance; they have formed an independentfirm, Vatier & Associés

French firm Bignon Lebray Delsol & Associéshas hired Pierre-Olivier Brouard as a partner and Andréa Geiger as a consultant for its corporate andM&A practice. Brouard has returned to BignonLebray after three years at Cabinet Hoche, while Geiger has joined from the Paris office of Kramer LevinNaftalis & Frankel

UK shipping firm Ince & Co formally opened twooffices in France in January 2002, in Paris and Le Havre. Gilles Gautier, Fred Vroom, Andrew Charlier and Jérôme Lafont de Sentenac are joining the firm aspartners from UK shipping firm Constant & Constant,along with Dominique Jouaillec, Mathieu Croix and threeassistants

August & Debouzy has hired Isabelle Renardto head its IP and commercial contracts group, following thedeparture of the firm's former head of IP and IT, Louis deGaulle, and his team in 2001. Renard was previously incharge of the IT department at Andersen Legal Associationd'Avocats

Tax specialist Gaspard Brulé has joined Frenchfirm Caubet Chouchana Meyer as a partner from ArthurAndersen International's tax department

Norton Rose has hired corporate finance partner Dirk Otto for its Frankfurt office, Norton RoseVieregge. Otto has joined the firm from LinklatersOppenhoff & Rädler

Guido Krüger, a founding partner of Krüger Putz von Dollen, will join Wessing as apartner in January 2002. His practice focuses on tax,restructuring and M&A. Accompanying him in the move are Andreas Mainczyk and Thorsten Hackert

Dr Lutz Zimmer, a former associate at Baker &McKenzie/ Döser Amereller Noack, has returned to thefirm as a partner in its Munich based private equity group. Zimmer made the move from WestLB Panmure, where he wasan investment banker

Simmons & Simmons has recruited Dr Franz-JosefSchöne, a corporate and commercial lawyer, from Haarmann Hemmelrath & Partner's Düsseldorf office.Also new to Simmons & Simmons are BBLP BeitenBurkhardt Mittl & Wegener partners Dr StefanWeinheimer and Dr Hans-Hermann Aldenhoff, who practisecorporate law and litigation respectively

Network365, a provider of application platformsfacilitating the mobile lifestyle, has recruited GavinDenn to take charge of the company's legal affairs. Joiningas Legal Counsel, Denn is moving on from his role asSenior Corporate Counsel at Critical Path, Inc

Eversheds has formed an alliance with corporate firm,Piergrossi Villa Bianchini Riccardi (PVBR). The firms planto merge at a future date

Simmons & Simmons has established a presence inPadua after consolidating its association with StudioLegale through a full merger

Luigi Mansani, a specialist in pharmaceutical law,trademarks and patents, has left IP boutique StudioVanzetti to lead Lovells' IP practice in Milan

Corporate lawyer Antonello Di Pasquale has left Simmons & Simmons for Pavia e Ansaldo's Romeoffice. Di Pasquale and his team joined Pavia inJanuary 2002

Italian law firm Adonnino Ascoli & Cavasola Scamoni(AA&CS) has joined the international network of CMSCameron McKenna, effective 1st February, 2002

Edwin Liem, a civil law notary, has left AndersenLegal/ Wouters Advocaten & Notarissen to rejoin Baker& McKenzie's Amsterdam office as a partner in thecorporate law practice. He has taken his team with him in themove

A former associate of Baker & McKenzie, Petervan den Oord, has returned to the firm as a partner in theNational Tax Practice Group. He was previously at Utrecht-basedfirm Van Mensen Wisselink

Loyens & Loeff has hired partner HermanBreedveld from De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek Linklaters& Alliance. A civil law notary, Breedveld focuseson the area of real estate

CMS Cameron McKenna Cristina Brinzan Law Office andCMS Bureau Francis Lefebvre/Catalina Marcu Law Office, theRomanian member firms of the international legal and tax servicesnetwork CMS, have combined their practices. They nowoperate from a shared office in Bucharest

Allen & Overy has hired CarlosAlbinaña from Clifford Chance to lead itsMadrid-based tax practice

Rolf Åbjörnsson has left AdvokatfirmanLindahl to join Hellström & Partners, wherehe will develop the firm's insolvency practice