Dechert has hired a six-partner team from Coudert Brothers' Paris office securing a major boost to the Philadelphia firm's French practice.

The group, which is headed by local managing partners Alain Decombe and Xavier Nyssen, will join the 900-lawyer US firm on 1 October.

The other partners are Jay Aragones, Philip Dunhaml, Eduardo Silva-Romero and Yann de Kergos. In total, 32 lawyers from Coudert's 40-strong office will move to Dechert.

The Paris office is believed to have wanted to remain an entire team although two of Coudert's eight local partners, veteran finance partner Jonathan Wohl and M&A partner Pascale Gros will not be joining Dechert.

It is a significant boost to Dechert's low-profile Paris office, which currently only has nine lawyers and four partners.

In a separate move, Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe has continued to pick apart Coudert's network following its previous raid on the London, Moscow and China practices of the embattled firm.

The San Francisco giant has added Washington DC partner Olga Sirodoeva. The hire, following the departure of two DC partners to Arent Fox, leaves Coudert with three partners in the US capital.

The latest hires comes after Coudert last month announced that it was to dissolve after failing to secure a firm-wide merger.