Paris

French firm Franklin is replenishing its ranks, hiring six partners and 18 associates and creating two new departments.

It comes little more than a month after the firm lost 27 lawyers, including seven partners, to Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner's (BCLP) Paris office earlier this year.

The new arrivals will help Franklin replenish the loss of key players in M&A and finance to BCLP, which has also hired away partners and teams in real estate, taxation, and public law.

The most recent hires at Paris-based Franklin include a team of five banking and finance lawyers headed by partner Stéphan Alamowitch, who joins from UGGC where he was head of banking and finance. He was previously head of banking and finance at legacy firm Olswang (now CMS) and at Dechert in Paris, and was a finance partner at Orrick.

Alamowitch brings four associates, the firm said in a statement.

Meanwhile, Alexandre Marque, a founding Franklin partner, has rejoined the firm as co-head of corporate law after five years as general counsel of Altice, a French telecommunications company and longtime Franklin client.

Marque and four partners left Paris-based Salès Vincent in 2001 before its merger with legacy firm Denton Wilde Sapte to start Franklin. He shares corporate department-head duties with Yam Atallah.

Another former Franklin partner, Patrick Thiébart, has returned as part of an employment law team of ten lawyers, including partner Myriam Delawari-de Gaudusson and eight associates.

Thiébart, who practiced at Franklin from 2005 to 2009, comes from French powerhouse Jeantet, where he practised for 10 years and co-headed the labor and employment law group. Delawari-de Gaudusson comes from DeGaulle-Fleurance & Associés, where she was a partner for three years after stints at Scotto & Associés, where she rose to partner, and Latham & Watkins.

Rounding out the new hires are partners who will head up two new departments at Franklin. Serge Durox, a 17-year veteran of the Big Four accountancy EY, brings six senior lawyers to launch a new regulatory and compliance practice focusing on financial services firms.

Numa Rengot will head a new restructuring and distressed M&A practice. He joins from Aston, a Paris-based member of the International Practice Group of independent lawyers, accountants and tax advisors.