Feb 23 – US law firm Jenner & Block is growing its bench of international arbitration specialists with partner hires in Washington, DC, and London, the firm said Thursday.
Kenneth Beale is joining Jenner from King & Spalding’s Washington office. James Rogers joins from Norton Rose Fulbright in London.
Beale said he represented companies across a range of sectors, including financial services, telecommunications and energy, in arbitration with other companies and governments. He declined to discuss his clients by name.
Rogers has represented Austrian oil and gas company OMV AG in a long-running dispute with the Romanian government over liability for remediating historical pollution at oil and gas production sites in the country following the 2004 privatization of the national oil company, Petrom, which OMV owns .
Although Norton Rose Fulbright was larger than Jenner, Rogers said his practice was not a major focus of his old firm, saying he was “away from the center of gravity.” Arbitrations and disputes are in Jenner’s “DNA,” he said.
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Jenner wants to continue to grow the practice in London and Washington, but there is no “particular target” for hiring, said Charlie Lightfoot, head of the firm’s international arbitration practice.
“The fact that they are making two hires simultaneously I think is evidence of the investment they’re making,” Beale said.
Edward Kehoe, the co-head of King & Spalding’s international arbitration practice, said in a statement they wished Beale well.
A spokesperson for Norton Rose Fulbright did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Chicago-founded Jenner has been on a hiring streak in Washington, bringing on lawyers who have served in the Biden administration and in Congress. Last month, the firm said it hired Josh Hsu, a former lawyer for Vice President Kamala Harris at both the White House and the US Senate; he joins in March.
Last fall, Jenner hired Michelle Kallen, formerly with the US House general counsel’s office, and Marcus Childress, a former investigator for the congressional committee that was suspected of the storming of the US Capitol by former President Donald Trump’s supporters.
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