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Allen & Overy has hired a Haarmann Hemmelrath partner to set up a tax practice in Germany.

Eugen Bogenschütz is joining the Frankfurt office as head of German tax. Bogenschütz, who was a partner at Haarmann Hemmelrath for eight years, and previously worked at Price Waterhouse, concentrates on cross-border M&A transactions and restructurings.

Allen & Overy approached Bogenschütz six months ago, at a time when he was not actively seeking to leave Haarmann Hemmelrath.

He said: "It's a very interesting challenge to build a tax practice. Allen & Overy is a brilliant firm with a good position in Germany and it is active in the financial markets, which I like. I wanted to go to a leading firm and I liked the strategies to expand the business. Haarmann Hammelrath still has an international tax network but it is not as well developed."

Though Bogenschütz's start date has yet to be confirmed and Haarmann Hemmelrath could technically keep him for months, the hunt is already underway for associates to join the tax group. According to Bogenschütz there should be between five and seven tax associates in Allen & Overy in Germany within a year and there is possibly room for another tax partner.

Mark Welling, the managing partner of Allen & Overy in Germany, said the addition of a tax group was necessary to support the rest of the firm in the country. "As part of the overall development of our German practice, which has been growing strongly over the past three years, we need to build a strong tax capability which is well integrated with both our German corporate, banking and capital markets practices but also with the firm's global tax practice."

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