Dewey & LeBoeuf has hired a partner from Fried Frank Harris Shriver & Jacobson to co-chair its compensations, benefits and employment department.

Howard Adler is set to join Dewey's New York office next month (15 September); he joins former sole chair Martha Steinman to lead the 27-lawyer department. She is also a partner in the New York office, which has a total of 160 partners.

Adler has practiced with Fried Frank since 1986, making partner in 1994. His practice focuses on employee benefits and executive compensations in M&A. His experience includes representing companies in recapitalisations, reorganisations and financing transactions.

He recently worked on Blackstone Group's $1.6bn (?859m) acquisition of Apria Healthcare, advising the three financing banks through the acquisition.

Dewey chairman Steve Davis said: "Howard is a seasoned employee benefits and executive compensation lawyer with over twenty years of M&A and general corporate experience. We are very pleased to have an lawyer with Howard's reputation, leadership and expertise joining the firm."

Last month, Dewey & LeBoeuf's New York office sealed the hire of two M&A partners from Greenberg Traurig. Ivan Presant and Lorenzo Borgogni both joined Greenberg in 2004 with a history at elite Manhattan firms Sullivan & Cromwell and Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz respectively.