Employment Leader of Hogan Lovells'moves to Herbert Smith Freehills

After leading the global employment practice at Hogan Lovells for nearly a decade, Barbara Roth, has joined the Anglo-Australian firm Herbert Smith Freehills in New York as a partner.

The veteran partner plans to build the international firm’s employment practice in the US although she will not have an official leadership title at her new firm.

Herbert Smith Freehills’ New York office, with more than 40 lawyers and the lone outpost in the U.S., lists no employment lawyers. Co-headquartered in the UK and Australia, Herbert Smith, has nearly 70 employment lawyers globally, ranging from Europe to Africa to Australia, according to its website.

Roth in an interview said that building the employment practice in the U.S. would entail recruiting partners and also drawing on existing internal resources for her U.S. clients. Those clients are primarily in the financial services industry, she said.

“It is a very interesting opportunity because the firm is building on strength. And building is fun, but in this case, there is such a strong platform and such a strong reputation and such a strong client base, such excellent professionals of the highest quality that it’s exciting and also challenging to expand in the United States,” she said.