Osborne Clarke has hired a three-partner team from Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe to expand its energy and infrastructure capabilities in London. 

Sector veteran John Deacon is set to join Osborne Clarke effective immediately, while Dominic O’Brien and Hannah Roscoe will join before the end of the financial year. 

The firm said the trio’s arrival will add significant heft to its energy and utility sector expertise, particularly in relation to its work in the renewables and power management, waste and bioenergy sub-sectors. They join Osborne Clarke’s sizeable UK-based energy and utilities team which consists of 74 lawyers, including 39 partners as listed on the firm’s website. 

The hires also follow hot on the heels of the addition of energy partner Hugo Lidbetter, who joined the firm’s energy group from Fieldfisher in Bristol earlier this year. 

Matthew Lewis, head of the firm’s UK energy and utilities sector group, said: “We're committed to investing and growing our energy sector to support our decarbonisation transformation strategy. John, Dominic and Hannah bring impressive experience to the partnership that will turbo charge our services and help us grow our existing client base." 

Deacon joined Orrick in 2015 from Hogan Lovells after five years as co-leader of the UK firm’s renewables practice. He focuses his practice in energy projects including biogas and solar assets, carbon finance and trading and infrastructure law and specialises in handling matters related to renewables and procurement contracts. 

Prior to joining Hogan Lovells, Deacon spent six years as a partner at Hunton & Williams between 2005 and 2011. Before that, he worked at Hammonds, where he joined as a partner in 2004 after spending five years as an associate at Baker McKenzie, according to his Linkedin profile. 

O’Brien, meanwhile, joined Orrick from Jones Day in 2016. The bulk of his experience lies in the energy and infrastructure project finance space, where he regularly assists operational utilities, developers and energy providers with traditional greenfield project financing, secondary and brownfield acquisition financing and corporate financings. 

Roscoe is making the move after just over two years at Orrick. She joined the US firm in 2019 from Herbert Smith Freehills, where she had worked since she trained and qualified there between 2008 and 2010. Her experience covers M&A, joint ventures, commercial contracts, restructurings, financings and project developments across the renewable energy, nuclear and conventional power spaces. 

Earlier this month, Osborne Clarke boosted its European infrastructure and energy and utilities platforms when it hired 30 lawyers from local practices to launch an office in Warsaw. The office, its first physical base in Central and Eastern Europe, is led by co-managing partners Olgierd Świerzewski and Tomasz Olkiewicz, while the wider team will comprise a total of six partners, including four from Polish accountancy firm MDDP, as well as 24 lawyers and four business support staff. 

In January, veteran Orrick corporate partner John Cook left the firm after more than a quarter of a century to go in-house at Oregon-based clean energy company Intersect Power as chief legal officer.