Jeremy De Melo, Merrill Lynch's London head of legal, has joined the expanding European corporate restructuring and structured finance business of US law firm Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft.

De Melo, one of Merrill's vice-presidents, will work alongside James Croke, head of Cadwalader's international capital markets practice in London, and Andrew Wilkinson, the firm's UK managing partner and a corporate restructuring expert.