Mallesons Stephen Jaques has boosted its London M&A offering with the hire of Australian rival Minter Ellison's London managing partner Rob Hanley.

Hanley is set to join Mallesons London office next month (15 September), where he will work closely with the firm's global M&A team. The two partner office is headed by Rowan Russell.

Dual-qualified in England and Australia, Hanley was a partner in Minter Ellison's London office between 1997 and 2001, before heading back to Sydney to lead the local corporate group. He came back to London in 2005 and was expected to return to Australia early next year.

In addition to Hanley's hire Mallesons is also planning to add to its London finance team with the transfer of banking and finance partner Adrienne Showering from Hong Kong next year.

Mallesons' chief executive partner Robert Milliner said: "The appointment will contribute to Mallesons' strategic objective of better supporting the transactional work undertaken by our M&A and capital markets teams in Europe as well as the Asia-Pacific region."

Hanley's departure leaves Minter Ellison with two partners in the City - corporate partner Michael Whalley and London finance head Nigel Clark. The firm is not expecting to name a new managing partner for the office.