Willkie Farr & Gallagher has boosted its European presence with the hire of a six-lawyer team of bankruptcy and litigation lawyers for its Paris office.

Fried Frank Harris Shriver & Jacobson partner Maurice Lantourne has joined Willkie along with five associates. His practice focuses on advising corporate debtors, creditors and investors acquiring distressed assets and businesses, while he also is a trial lawyer focusing on both commercial and white-collar criminal matters.

Lantourne joined Fried Frank in June 2006 along with eight associates following the dissolution of his 15-lawyer boutique Lantourne & Partners.

Fried Frank's alliance with the boutique dates back to November 2005, while a formal merger was also mooted as a possibility before the boutique's closure.

At Willkie, the team will work with the restructuring group – which is headed up in Paris by Alexandra Bigot – and the litigation group, which is headed by Dominique Mondolini.

The firm said the hire was part of plans to grow the European practice and for the Paris office to be better positioned to advise clients on issues arising out of the current financial crisis. It also said it would create further synergies with Anglo-Scots firm Dickson Minto, with which it sealed a strategic alliance in June this year.

Willkie chairman Jack Nusbaum said: "[Lantourne's] considerable expertise and experience reinforces our ability to deliver high-quality restructuring services on a global basis, and to expand our already substantial involvement in multi-lateral restructurings."

This is the second time this year that Willkie has turned to Fried Frank for European hires. In September the US firm took on the bulk of Fried Frank's Frankfurt capital markets team, adding partner Michael Schlitt along with a around four associates.