Appleby announced yesterday that five new partners have joined the firm.

All the new recruits have been hired from rival offshore specialists and will be based in Appleby offices outside Bermuda.

Appleby was ranked as the world's No. 1 offshore law firm by partner numbers in The Lawyer's 2010 Offshore Survey and will have 82 partners and 211 lawyers.

Richard Addlestone has joined the Funds and Investment Services team and is based in the Cayman Islands office. He has over 16 years' experience and was previously a partner with Walkers in Cayman. He specialises in private equity and hedge funds, and also advises on captive insurance, reinsurance and general corporate issues.

Julian Black joins the Banking and Asset Finance team in the Cayman Islands office. He was also formerly a partner at Walkers, and specialises in debt and equity financings as well as advising on bank lending and taking security, bond issues, repackagings, project finance, securitisation, IPOs, Nasdaq listings and rights issues.

Matthew Stocker joins the Hong Kong office in April as a member of the Banking and Asset Finance team. He was previously a partner at Maples and Calder in the Cayman Islands and Hong Kong and specialises in finance, banking, asset finance, structured finance, debt and equity financings and capital markets.

Matthew Feargrieve joins the Zurich office in May in the Funds and Investment Services team to focus on Cayman funds and private equity. He was previously a partner at Mourant in London, specialising in investment funds and corporate finance.

James Gaudin joins the Jersey office in August. He was previously a partner and head of Jersey Corporate at Walkers and advises on corporate and commercial issues, with an emphasis on finance, capital markets and funds.

In addition to the new partner appointments, partner Gray Smith, who joined Appleby in April 2009, has now moved back to the London office where he will lead the Funds and Investment Services team. Prior to joining Appleby, Gray was a London managing partner at Ogier and previously a partner at Maples and Calder.

Shaun Morris, managing partner of the Bermuda office said: "We believe the strategic hire of these leading practitioners further strengthens our global Corporate and Commercial practice group.

"One of our key strategic goals for 2010 is to continue our substantial investment in talented and experienced lawyers who can deliver a range of high quality services to our global client base."