Taylor Wessing begins rebuilding in Paris after 'partner-stealing' case

Taylor Wessing has begun the process of rebuilding its Paris office after losing a chunk of its partners to US firm Nixon Peabody to launch in the French capital. Taylor Wessing and Nixon Peabody last week reached an agreement over allegations that the US firm poached a group of 12 partners to launch in Paris after merger talks between the firms collapsed. A court settlement last week in Nixon's favour stated that the firm did not steal Taylor Wessing partners, despite a two-year moratorium agreement on recruitment.Taylor Wessing France is currently in discussions to hire three lateral partners and one senior associate, after losing 25 lawyers from the office in total. The raid leaves the firm with eight partners and 27 associates. Taylor Wessing's new France managing partner Christian Valsamidis said: "The early departure of the team joining Nixon Peabody enables us to move ahead more quickly with our plans to grow the Paris office. Four out of the five founding partners remain and, with four other partners and 27 associates, the French office of Taylor Wessing remains a significant player in the French market." Meanwhile, Nixon's Paris office, headed by former Taylor Wessing Paris managing partner Arnaud de Senilhes, hopes to add four partners and around 20 associates in the next 18 months. It will open with 14 partners after having promoted one former Taylor Wessing associate and relocating New York-based private equity and corporate partner Douglas Glucroft, who is dual-qualified for the New York and Paris bars.De Senilhes said: "We are already pretty much full-service, but we want to add additional capacity in finance, add partner capacity in insurance and we would also like to grow the public-private partnership practice group."

November 06, 2008 at 12:55 AM

2 minute read

By a:1:{i:0;s:1:" ";}