Druces, a focused business and private wealth law practice at the heart of the Square Mile, has made a raft of senior lateral hires.
These hires enhance a business law team to complement the firm’s private wealth expertise and caters to the dynamic market which the firm serves.
Toby Starr joins as a commercial litigation and arbitration consultant with a speciality in corporate transactional disputes, international and domestic arbitration and employment law. Toby also sits as a part-time employment judge. After a career at Linklaters and Debevoise & Plimpton, he founded the firm Starr & Partners.
Charles Spragge (pictured) joins from Starr & Partners as a commercial litigation and arbitration partner, with a practice rooted in City businesses, banks and financial institutions as well as a range of other corporates, directors and shareholders. He was formerly a partner at CMS Cameron McKenna and TLT.
Robin Tutty also joins from Starr & Partners as an insolvency and restructuring consultant, with particular expertise in travel companies in financial difficulty. Robin’s previous career encompassed Slaughter and May, K&L Gates and Field Fisher Waterhouse.
Druces has also made three further hires to the senior team in the last five months. Nicholas Fisher joined as a banking partner in May, having formerly been a partner at Osborne Clarke and Simmons & Simmons, and spans the firm’s corporate and finance practices.
Former head of planning at Trowers & Hamlin, Chris Proudley, joined the firm as a planning law consultant in July 2014 and Michael Pidge joined as a property litigation associate in August from Addleshaw Goddard.
Managing partner, Jeremy Dutton, said: ‘The legal services market for businesses and individuals in or looking to the City is huge, but has diverse requirements. Our strategy is to provide a high-value service by teams with competitive levels of expertise in connected specialist areas of business and private wealth law.
‘Our focus is on deals and disputes of tens of millions, handled by people who work closely together under one roof in the City. Our core client base covers investor-entrepreneurs, banks, other businesses without sufficient in-house legal capacity, charities and the independently wealthy.’
