Travers Smith’s head of tax, Russell Warren, has left the firm after 25 years to join King & Spalding in London.
His move follows a series of senior Travers departures over the past year, including partners in tax, private equity and leveraged finance.
King & Spalding has hired Russell Warren, head of tax at Travers Smith, in a major boost to its London corporate tax practice.
A firm lifer, Warren joined Travers as a trainee in 1999 and rose through the ranks to become head of tax in 2022. He became a partner in 2010.
His practice spans transactional and advisory work for sponsors, corporates and financial institutions, with experience across structuring, management equity plans and tax investigations. He is also a member of the British Private Equity and Venture Capital Association’s Main Tax Committee, representing the industry on key tax issues.
"Russell’s extensive experience providing tax counsel on M&A and finance-focused matters will be a critical asset for our clients globally and in our London office, where our growing transactional practice is seeing more and more need for sophisticated tax guidance on international corporate, finance and funds matters," said Jonathan Melmed, co-leader of King & Spalding's corporate practice.
Warren described King & Spalding’s growth in London as having "reached a critical mass", adding that its "entrepreneurial environment, strong transactional capabilities and integrated global platform" made it an ideal platform to build his practice.
Senior exits
For Travers, the move follows the departure of senior tax partner Simon Skinner to Latham this time last year in one of the City's standout tax moves of 2024, and leveraged finance head Matthew Ayre, who left for Goodwin this summer. Private equity head Lucie Cawood also left at the end of last year. Notably, all three - like Warren - had spent the bulk of their careers at the City firm.
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