SJ Berwin has added a new partner in Paris from Willkie Farr & Gallagher.

Public M&A and capital markets partner Etienne Boursican, who was a special European counsel at the US law firm, joined the top 20 City practice last month.

He has joined SJ Berwin's 20-lawyer Paris M&A department as the first partner in the group with a specialist focus on advising listed companies. His practice focuses on tender offers, sale and purchase of equity stakes, public offerings, private placements and initial public offerings. He also specialises in corporate governance issues.

SJ Berwin Paris managing partner George Pinkham said: "Although we have lawyers advising listed companies on these matters, we did not have a dedicated specialist. We think there is going to be a lot of movement within this field and therefore we needed to enforce the practice."

The hire brings the office to 17 partners in total, with the outpost covering M&A, buyouts, venture capital, fund formation, tax, banking and finance, EU and competition, real estate and restructuring work. Boursican's hire marks the first lateral partner appointment for SJ Berwin's Paris office this year, although the firm added two lateral partners last year in restructuring and real estate.

SJ Berwin has been open in Paris since 2001 and currently has around 60 lawyers, including partners in the practice.