Firm hires: KPMG

Business advisory firm KPMG has announced the appointment of two new senior hires to its legal services practice as the firm targets further growth.

Emma Gibson joins as a partner from Shoosmiths where she was national head of Corporate. She has been appointed to establish a legal services hub in Reading to target the Southern region and to complement KPMG’s existing UK legal practices across London, the Midlands and the North. This hire aligns with further investment into KPMG’s deal advisory capability in the Thames Valley by appointing new corporate finance Director, Sami Fairris.

Gibson has been ‘recommended’ in both Legal 500 and Chambers and is well regarded, particularly in the Thames Valley market.

Richard Lewis has also been made a partner and will lead KPMG’s corporate legal team in London. He started his career with Clifford Chance, before joining Hogan Lovells as a partner in 2002. He joined Eversheds in 2012 where he was recognised by Legal 500 in its ‘Top Tier’ category.

Lewis will head the London Corporate practice, which has teams specialising in a range of domestic and cross-border group reorganisations and also M&A and transactional activity, working closely alongside KPMG’s tax, accounting and deal advisory capabilities.

Nick Roome, partner and UK Head of Legal Services at KPMG, said: ’We are challenging the legal services market to do things differently. Our clients want solutions to their business issues and having our lawyers operate in a multidisciplinary environment means they are ideally placed to do so. It’s about drawing on our firm’s breadth of knowledge and broader business perspective, combined with high quality legal expertise to optimise what we offer to clients.

’Emma and Richard are high calibre lawyers at the top of their field and their arrival marks another milestone in the development of our legal services offering in both the UK and globally. We recognise that we are a challenger brand in the legal sector and disruption, not least from technology, is rife within our market. Having such quality talent will help us further embrace that change and provide the best support for clients.’

The announcement follows the recent hire of partner and tax law specialist Matthew Herrington, who joined KPMG from international law firm McDermott Will & Emery to focus on international tax structuring, transfer pricing and dispute resolution. It also coincides with the promotion of Matthew Fleming to partner within KPMG’s legal services tax disputes practice. Fleming joined KPMG in 2009 as a consultant and focuses on technical tax matters in respect of VAT, international trade, customs duty and indirect taxes. The appointments will support the firm’s ability to offer clients high calibre support to manage their tax affairs and relationships with the tax authorities in a productive manner.