Two disputes partners have joined Withers in the US. Amman Khan, formerly a sole practitioner at his own law firm, joins in California, while Christopher LaVigne has been promoted to partner, having joined the practice in New York as a special counsel in April 2020.

Khan, who joins with an associate John Dillon, has more than twenty years’ experience of commercial and private client litigation. 

Dual-qualified in both the United States and Canada, in California and Ontario respectively, he has worked at a variety of Canadian and US law firms, most recently, Pierce Bainbridge, where he was briefly managing partner of the Los Angeles office. 

Khan previously spent the best part of a decade at Glaser Weil in Los Angeles, where he specialised in trust and fiduciary disputes, acting for family offices, closely held family businesses, entrepreneurs and brand identity commercial clients. 

LaVigne was also previously a partner at Pierce Bainbridge, having worked at Lankler Siffert & Wohl, and started his career at Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom. 

His is a mainstream commercial litigation practice, handling investigations and associated disputes across the Southern District of New York, spanning the Securities & Exchange Commission, the Department of Justice, and other state and federal regulatory and law enforcement bodies.

The head of Withers’ dispute resolution practice, Peter Wood, said: “Chris and Amman are keystone hires for taking our US litigation strengths to the next level. Both of them have a track record of successfully managing big cases and winning the long term trust and loyalty of their clients, which is a real marker of a first-class litigator.”

Dean Nicyper, who leads the firm’s US team, added: “Bringing Chris and Amman on board furthers our team’s capabilities significantly to provide [dispute resolution] solutions, especially in California, where our practice is growing as more clients are coming to us to handle their disputes.”

New York has seen significant growth for the firm’s US disputes team; white collar criminal lawyer, Martin Auerbach joined the firm as of counsel in January 2020, to lead the corporate crime team, in which Georges Lederman works as special counsel, following his arrival at the firm in October 2019.

Three US partners were promoted in July 2019, including one in New York, as part of a seven-lawyer partnership promotions round.

Withers welcomed Hong Kong-based international arbitration specialist Sherlin Tung to the practice in April, although it lost two partners to Mishcon de Reya which launched in Singapore in May.