London-based Allen & Overy Announces Plans for New Washington Office

Allen & Overy announced Wednesday plans to open a new Washington, D.C. office. The firm will be adding three new partners to lead the new operation.

Barbara Stettner, Chris Salter and Charles Borden, previously with O’Melveny & Myers in Washington, will join Allen & Overy when the firm opens its newest office in mid-July. Stettner and Salter were partners at O'Melveny, and Borden was counsel.

“Our vision is to have a global regulatory group that is deep in the number of people and the regulatory areas that each of those people cover,” said Kevin O’Shea, Allen's U.S. managing partner.

By expanding to Washington, O’Shea said the London-based firm would increase its U.S. presence in areas like intellectual property, Federal Communications Commission enforcement and litigation, antitrust and the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

O’Shea said the firm hopes to employ 10 partners with a total of 40 to 50 people working in its K Street office by the end of the year. He said this would be a realistic goal and would consider it a great accomplishment.

“We are going to add laterally and our expectation is that a number of the O’Melveny associates will follow the partners that they work for,” O’Shea said.

Stettner has experience advising broker-dealers and financial institutions on domestic and cross-border regulatory and compliance obligations, according to an Allen & Overy press release.

Salter brings experience advising hedge funds and private equity funds on compliance with federal securities laws. Borden focuses on the intersection of law and public policy to advise financial institutions.