Squire Patton Boggs has hired partners Lee Norman and Ben Johnson into its Litigation Practice. They join the firm from DWF, where Mr. Norman was head of its commercial litigation team in Manchester. Mr. Norman and Mr. Johnson follow partners Lucy Webster and Christian Toms, who joined the firm’s London Litigation team in recent months.
“Lee and Ben form part of our strategy to broaden and diversify our practice,” said UK head of Litigation, Stephen Sampson. “Market conditions have led to an uptick in demand for contentious and regulatory services, and the expansion of our Corporate and Financial Services teams has also created new opportunities to grow our disputes offering. Lee and Ben are important additions, complementing our recent London hires and helping us to further develop our services in this field.”
Mr. Norman advises on complex heavyweight disputes and advisory work across the full range of corporate and commercial litigation. His areas of specialism include disputes arising from M&A and private equity deals, shareholdings and partnerships. He also advises on complex professional negligence claims and emergency disputes against employees, directors and competitors arising from breaches of employment contracts and fiduciary duties, team moves and the theft of confidential information.
Mr. Johnson provides contentious and regulatory advice to clients in the banking and finance sector. A specialist in the areas of fraud, payment systems and fintech, he acts for clearing banks, payment service providers, asset based lenders and asset finance businesses on a range of issues, including payments regulation, payment processing contracts, and security rules. He has also advised on high profile data privacy matters resulting from data breaches and criminal hacks.
Rob Elvin, managing partner of Squire Patton Boggs in Manchester, commented “Lee and Ben are market leading litigators, recognised for their drive, technical expertise and depth of relationships with businesses in the region and beyond. We are excited that they have chosen to join us; Lee’s litigation experience in M&A and private equity sits well alongside the work of our top-tier Corporate practice, whilst Ben’s banking and finance specialism together with his expertise in large scale data privacy matters are areas of particular focus for us.”