Fried Frank Harris Shriver & Jacobson has dramatically bolstered its contentious French practice after forming an alliance with Paris boutique Lantourne & Partners and hiring a senior insolvency specialist from a US rival.

Fried Frank said the formal alliance, which will make the US firm one of the few foreign practices to secure a substantial contentious practice in France, was a precursor to a merger, with the two firms hoping to integrate formally as soon as 2006.

Fifteen-lawyer Lantourne specialises in bankruptcy law, commercial litigation and white-collar criminal law.

Founding partner Maurice Lantourne has been involved in a string of high-profile cases, including defending French businessman Bernard Tapie in his bankruptcy litigation against French bank Credit Lyonnais.

Tapie was awarded damages of €200m (£135m), the highest damages pay-out in French legal history.

In a related move, Weil Gotshal & Manges partner David Chijner has been recruited to head Fried Frank's local insolvency practice.

The UK and French-qualified lawyer previously co-headed the Paris insolvency practice of Weil Gotshal, which is regarded as the US's top restructuring practice.

The Lantourne expansion comes after two years of sustained investment in Fried Frank's European practice, with the New York firm in February securing an eight-lawyer team from French firm Veil Jourde.

The team, which gave the firm 20 lawyers in France, included M&A partner Patrick Jais and litigation partner Barbara Levy, who joined as European counsel. Fried Frank joint Paris head Jais told Legal Week: "We hope to have 40 lawyers in the Paris office by 2006, which is a good size. After that, we can grow organically."

Fellow Paris head Eric Cafritz said: "We both intend for [the alliance] to lead to a complete merger, but the cultures of the two firms are very different and we want to iron out any kinks before we merge."

Commenting on Lantourne, Cafritz said: "Having such a prominent expert in the field will put us a long way ahead of any other UK or US firms [in the French market]."