Half of Moquet Borde's partners are to lose equity status as part of its takeover by Los Angeles giant Paul Hastings Janofsky & Walker it has emerged, with the French firm set to close its Lyon arm.

The deal, which is now also awaiting the green light from the Paris Bar, will see only seven of the firm's 14 partners enter the partnership of the top 50 US firm.

Managing partner Dominique Borde and Paris-based Andrew Armfelt, Oliver Deren, Aline Poncelet, Henri de Feydeau and Patricia Ghozland plus Brussels managing partner Pierre Kirch will all join Paul Hastings' 188-strong partnership.

Of the six remaining Paris partners, litigation and bankruptcy partner Christophe Theron is to leave the firm to start his own practice with the other five joining Paul Hastings as of counsel.

The restructuring also sees Moquet Borde ditch its four-lawyer Lyon branch with local managing partner Phillippe Croizat being given the choice of returning to Paris or splitting the practice off as an informally allied firm.

Borde told Legal Week: "We can best serve the Lyon region from Paris and the office staff have been given the option to relocate to Paris. If they decide not to, they can spin it off and form an alliance with us, but the office will officially be closed."

Moquet Borde is also in the process of defining new arrangements with its allied offices in Budapest and Tallinn, which both use the Moquet Borde brand. "We have to settle some things for these offices but we envisage keeping our co-operative agreements in place," added Borde.

The overhaul comes after Moquet Borde voted on 16 December to go ahead with the merger with the 900-lawyer US firm.