Paul Hastings is creating a new restructuring and insolvency practice in Paris with the hiring of Guilhem Bremond as a partner along with a team of seven lawyers.

Bremond will be responsible for building the practice in Paris and will also contribute to Paul Hastings' established restructuring activities in Europe, particularly in London and Frankfurt, the firm said in a statement.

"The arrival of Guilhem and his team is an extremely strong signal that we are sending to the market," Olivier Vermeulen, chairman of the Paris office of Paul Hastings, said in the statement. "We are now able to offer our customers a full range of transactional services, embodied by the greatest specialists in the market."

Bremond founded his own firm, Bremond & Associés, in 2006 after four years as head of the bankruptcy practice at Veil Jourde, a litigation boutique in Paris. Before joining Veil Jourde, he practiced at the Sonier firm, where he worked alongside the prominent French bankruptcy lawyer Gabriel Sonier. He also worked at Groupe Arnault, the investment company of the LVMH chairman Bernard Arnault, as head of new technology investments.

"The integration with Paul Hastings is an extraordinary opportunity for my team and me to extend and further extend an exciting adventure started almost 15 years ago within my own structure," Bremond said.

He added that the combination of restructuring with Paul Hastings' existing practice areas is "particularly awaited by market players and their managers, all the more in the current context."

Paul Hastings has been on a growth spurt in Paris, recruiting five partners in the past 12 months. The firm now has around 50 lawyers in Paris, including 19 partners.

The most recent partner hire was Camille Paulhac as a competition partner, who joined in March from Allen & Overy. Nicola Bonucci, director of legal affairs at the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, joined in November 2019 as a partner in investigations and white-collar defense.

Charles Cardon, a Dechert partner, joined Paul Hastings in October 2019 as a corporate partner specializing in mergers and acquisitions and private equity. Bruno Leroy, also from Dechert, joined last May with a two-person team specializing in tax, M&A and private equity.