After a succession of senior departures from its Paris office, Dewey & LeBoeuf has moved to plug the gap for its French managing partner with a three-partner management committee.

The firm lost its Paris managing partner in April when firmwide international arbitration co-head Eric Schwartz left the position to launch a French base for US rival King & Spalding.

In his place, Dewey has created a new management committee consisting of banking and finance partner Michel Quere and corporate partners Stephen Walters and Margaret Civetta.

Quere joined Dewey in April last year from Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, while corporate and M&A specialist Walters was previously the head of Simmons & Simmons' Paris office before joining legacy firm LeBoeuf Lamb Greene & MacRae in 2005.

Civetta splits her time between New York and Paris, and is also overseeing the firm's new Madrid office, which is set to launch this month.

The new co-managing partners are three of a total of seven remaining equity partners in Dewey's Paris office. The French practice also has four local partners.

Prior to his departure, Schwartz had only headed the office for around a year, having taken over from Yves Huyghe de Mahenge, who retired from the firm. They had both joined from Freshfields in 2006. Since leaving, Mahenge has taken a position as external adviser to CMS Cameron McKenna.

Dewey's global international arbitration practice is now headed solely by Arthur Marriott QC, who splits his time between London and New York.

King & Spalding has yet to officially launch its Paris office as it is awaiting regulatory approval. It will be the second continental-European base for the Atlanta-headquartered firm, which launched an office in Frankfurt in September 2007.