King & Wood Mallesons (KWM) is taking steps to rebuild its Paris corporate practice, having hired senior associate Guilain Hippolyte from White & Case. The arrival of private equity specialist Hippolyte, who is joining KWM as a partner, represents the firm's first hire in Paris since the office was rocked in March by the departure of a highly regarded six-partner private equity team, which joined Goodwin Procter.

The firm has also appointed Paris tax head Sylvie Vansteenkiste as the office's new managing partner. The previous head, Maxence Bloch, was part of the group that quit for Goodwin Procter. Vansteenkiste is one of the partners who founded KWM's Paris office in 2001.

Senior partner for Europe and the Middle East, Stephen Kon, said the appointments "demonstrate our commitment to continue to build our Paris office". Paris corporate partner Pierre-Louis Perin, meanwhile, says that Hippolyte's "growing China practice" will help the firm win outbound investment work from its French clients.

KWM has endured a difficult time since it merged with SJ Berwin in 2013. The firm has carried out two major restructurings, which saw 10% of the global partnership axed in 2015 and a further 15% of European partners culled in 2016.

Outside of the layoffs, London managing partner William Boss stepped down in February after just one year in the role and a full two years before his term was due to end. At the same time, regional chief operating officer Rachel Reid left to join Taylor Wessing. But it was the loss of the bulk of its Paris private equity team – described by a current KWM partner as one of the firm's "crown jewel" practices – that was the biggest blow. The highly profitable department was widely regarded as one of the country's leading middle-market prac­tices and also had a solid reputation for venture capital work.

As a senior associate, Hippolyte does not have the same level of experience or command the same reputation as KWM's former partners.

Meanwhile, the firm continues to be blighted by exits, with former European finance head Jeremy Cross recently leaving for Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft and litigation partner Greg Lascelles and competition litigator Elaine Whiteford both moving to Covington & Burling.

KWM's remaining European and Middle Eastern partners recently voted to boost the firm's capital by pumping in £14m of their own money. The firm says that the move, which received the backing of 98% of voting partners, is the third and final stage of a strategic plan to strengthen its business in the region.

KWM previously had to start paying profit distributions to partners on a monthly basis following repeated delays to its quarterly system. The firm didn't pay out the complete first profit distribution relating to the financial year ended April 30 2015, until December, and entered 2016 having made just a quarter of the payments due for the 2015-16 financial year.