Only six short months after Coudert Brothers' Bangkok office hired an 11-lawyer team from the now defunct Freshfields Thai operation, the New York firm has suffered its own loss of a six-lawyer team from the region.

The beneficiary is DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary, and the new recruits increase the number of fee earners in its Bangkok office to 16.

The six-lawyer team specialises in telecoms and is headed up by partners Chanvitaya Suvarnapunya and Chatchai Inthasuwan. Chanvitaya has 23 years of commercial experience advising on corporate, M&A, customs tax, intellectual property and securities law. He has worked closely with a leading telecommunications operator in Thailand.

Chatchai Inthasuwan's primary areas of practice meanwhile are telecommunication issues and dispute resolution.

DLA Piper has also hired an insolvency and debt expert who is a consultant for the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank and the OECD. Lampros Vassiliou specialises in banking and finance, insolvency and debt restructuring law, and regularly acts for steering committees of creditors in formal and informal restructurings in Asia.

Nick Seddon, DLA Piper's managing director for Asia, said: "We want to be where our clients are and these recruitments are part of that strategy. Thailand is an increasingly important market for our clients. [Its] economy is performing well ... we are encouraged by signs of a sustained recovery, and client demand is growing. Clients such as the supermarket chain Tesco view Thailand as a key part of their international growth strategy."