Kennedys poaches upon rival BLM to reinforce its catastrophic injury team

Kennedys poaches upon rival BLM to reinforce its catastrophic injury team

The 10-strong London team from UK rival BLM led by Antony French will join Kennedys to make it London's Go-To law firm

The UK-based international commercial law firm Kennedys has made a big dent in its rival firm BLM by hiring a team of 10-lawyer, including three partners to augment its catastrophic injury team. Kennedys which has its offices across 26 countries specialises in insurance services.

The team quitting BLM is led by Antony French. He will have the company of his colleagues Deidre Burgess and Anthony Rawlins. They will join Kennedys in London along with six associates and a litigation assistant.

"We're excited to be further enhancing Kennedys' excellent reputation for defending catastrophic injury cases with the hire of Antony, Deirdre, Anthony and their team. Combining their, and our innovative approaches, experience and reputation in the market will demonstrate our continued commitment to our clients for managing their most serious and complex claims. Such cases require skilled, experienced and calm litigators," Richard West, partner and head of liability, said.

French served as head of BLM's catastrophic injury and insurance litigation team joins. He spent six years at BLM. He specialises in large catastrophic injury claims arising out of road traffic accidents and casualty claims

Before joining BLM in 2015, French was associated with the commercial litigation firm Greenwoods as an associate partner for 14years.

"I am excited to be joining an international business which is focused on capitalising on its ability to collaborate across borders. Kennedys' presence and forward-thinking attitude along with the experience we bring means that we can create the 'go to' law firm in London for large and catastrophic injury claims for the next 20 years and beyond," French said.

Among the other two partners, Burgess had also spent the bulk of her career at Greenwoods. She moved from Greenwoods to DWF in 2013 to work as a solicitor and technical director in the firm's London insurance practice before moving to BLM in 2019.

Overall, Burgess has over two decades of experience. She has experience working on complex injury cases with expertise in fatalities, serious orthopaedic injuries, chronic pain cases, brain injuries and suspected exaggerated and fraudulent claims.

Rawlins spend two years at BLM after being associated with DWF for five years. He has defended a number of brain injury, spinal, amputation and chronic pain cases relating to motor, employer's liability and public claims.