Weil Gotshal & Manges has hired two senior French lawyers to lead its Paris litigation department as it emerges that the current head, Pierre-Alain Bouhenic, is leaving to set up his own boutique.

The pair – former Paris Bar chairman Francis Teitgen and Bernard Casanova – joined Weil Gotshal as co-heads of litigation on 1 May.

Both men are senior figures in the Paris legal market with comparable profiles to Bouhenic, who specialises in securities and corporate litigation.

Teitgen, who was formerly chief executive of French newspaper Ouest France, led the influential Paris Bar from 2000-02, having been elected as a representative in 1996. Casoanova ran his own boutique in Paris.

Bouhenic is yet to finalise his plans for his new firm, which will focus on M&A, bankruptcy and real estate. However, he told Legal Week he was aiming to recruit about 20 lawyers.

He said of his replacements: "Teitgen and Casoanova are very fine lawyers and will form what will be one of the best litigation practices in Paris."

The pair are the latest of a number of high-profile recruits secured by the New York firm, which launched in Paris in 2002 after merging with securities and M&A boutique Serra Leavy & Cazals.

Notable hires include Allen & Overy's (A&O's) Paris leveraged finance head, Jonathan Nabarro, who joined the firm in December last year.

Nabarro had only been at A&O for two years, having joined from Ashurst in 2004. He now heads up the US firm's French banking and finance practice alongside Emmanuel Ringeval.

Nabarro's arrival came a week after the New York heavyweight took on a four-lawyer restruc-turing team from Willkie Farr & Gallagher.

Bouhenic, meanwhile, is the latest of a string of senior French lawyers to establish their own boutiques. In December last year, senior French lawyers from EY Law, LeBoeuf Lamb Greene & MacRae and Munich Re launched their own risk, insurance and finance boutique, becoming Perinne Ribierre & Redding.

Other boutiques to have sprung up in the past two years include Sarrau Thomas & Associes, Fuchs Cohana Reboul & Berroard and Pech de Laclause & Associes.