Seyfarth Shaw to Open London Office
UK presence to focus on international employment solutions for global client base.

Contact:
Kevin Livingston, National Director of Public Relations
(312) 460-6681 / (212) 218-5272, klivingston@seyfarth.com

NEW YORK (December 8, 2010) — Leading full-service law firm Seyfarth Shaw LLP announced today that the firm will open a  London office.

The office, which is expected to open in 2011, will build upon   Seyfarth’s high-profile International Labor & Employment practice.

The London office will be led by Peter Talibart. Talibart, who is qualified in both Canada and the UK, is joining Seyfarth as an equity partner from Norton Rose LLP where he has most recently been the head of the global employment law practice. He is widely regarded as one of the leading attorneys in the international employment law field. Talibart will play a key role in the firm’s international employment law practice and will have a particular focus on Europe and the Middle East .

“Over the last three years we have been evaluating our need for an enhanced platform to best service our U.S. clients’ international needs,” said Seyfarth Chairman Stephen Poor. “We have seen our clients’ demand for a solution to their international/global issues grow. Providing a scaled solution for our clients that is consistent with our proven approach to international work of this nature remains critically important. The London office is not a first step to us opening offices across Europe , nor is it an attempt to enter the UK with a full-service offering like other U.S. firms. Rather, it is about establishing a hub office to enable us to better service our clients and also to facilitate our close relationships with UK and European law firms who assist us across the region in all practice areas.”

In terms of the specific practice focus in London , Poor said: “in our view we already have the largest and best international employment practice in the world. It is a multi-partner practice led by one of the practice area’s pioneers, Darren Gardner. The practice focuses on assisting multinational clients with their complex and highly sophisticated cross-border employment work. We continue to be involved in the employment aspects of some of the world’s largest transactions and oversee numerous commercially critical strategic and compliance driven HR projects on a global basis. The addition of more best-in-class international employment attorneys like Pete to be based in our new office in London reinforces our market leading position and broadens our capability to deliver the type of high quality service in a way that our clients are used to.”  

The head of Seyfarth’s International Labor & Employment practice group, Darren Gardner, commented that: “We are very excited to open the London office and to welcome Pete to the team. We have been aware of his work in this area for a long while. Pete’s capabilities and credentials in Europe and the Middle East are second to none. He is widely known as both a terrific lawyer and someone who clients hold in very high regard, in particular as being practical and easy to work with. His international experience is extremely rare and extensive. He is a perfect fit for what we do and how we do it and we are very pleased to have him on board.”

In respect to his decision to join Seyfarth, Talibart said: “Seyfarth Shaw has the finest international employment law practice in the market and has been regarded as such ever since I started practicing in this area. I have a huge respect for the practitioners at the firm and Darren in particular, who I have dealt with regularly over the years. Seyfarth’s work in this area is of the highest quality and I am incredibly honored to be joining them.”

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Seyfarth Shaw has over 750 attorneys located in 10 offices throughout the United States, including: Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, New York, Sacramento, San Francisco, and Washington D.C. Seyfarth Shaw provides a broad range of legal services in the areas of labour and employment, employee benefits, litigation, corporate, and real estate. The firm’s practice reflects virtually every industry and segment of the country’s business and social fabric. Clients include over 300 of the Fortune 500 companies, financial institutions, newspapers and other media, hotels, health care organizations, airlines and railroads. The firm also represents a number of federal, state and local governmental and educational entities. For more information, please visit www.seyfarth.com or the following other sites:

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