Clyde & Co has picked up Clifford Chance's (CC's) Paris environment head Pierre Bechmann.

Bechmann, who joined CC in 1986 from Hughes Hubbard & Read and made partner in 1994, practices litigation and non-contentious regulatory work in the environmental sector. At Clydes he will focus on the insurance and reinsurance, chemical, automotive, transport, nuclear, energy and pharmaceutical sectors.

At CC Paris partner Patrick Hubert has replaced Bechmann leading the local environment team, which Bechmann had managed since 1991. Bechmann previously sat on CC's Paris executive committee but stepped down in 2004 to focus on fee earning work.

Clydes Paris office founding partner Gildas Rostain said: "[Bechmann] is a first-rate lawyer whose areas of work will complement the existing framework of the Paris office while bringing an extra dimension by enabling us to extend our wide range of services to industry clients and insurers."

Clydes has had an office in Paris since 1992. It has around 30 lawyers advising clients in the aviation, construction, energy, insurance, international trade, reinsurance and shipping sectors.

CC's Paris offering has around 210 lawyers including some 35 partners. Earlier this year the magic circle firm admitted that it had reduced headcount in the office by around 5% over the last year, without making redundancies.