Ince & Co's French arm is in talks to join top Paris firm Gide Loyrette Nouel, following the UK LLP's pre-pack takeover by Gordon Dadds at the end of last year.

The discussions are at an early stage, with just a handful of partners on either side involved, according to people familiar with the matter.

A source involved in the matter said that Ince's French arm, which also includes offices in Marseille and Le Havre, rejected the deal, completed on New Year's Eve, which saw Gordon Dadds acquire Ince's UK operations out of administration, creating Ince Gordon Dadds.

There are 10 partners across the three French offices – five in Paris, three in Le Havre and two in Marseille. The Paris and Le Havre offices date back to 2002, while the Marseille base was launched in 2017.

The Paris office, which is led by shipping partner Jerome de Sentenac, has a client base that includes shipyards, shipowners, international insurers, road hauliers, rail and aviation companies. The office's other four partners are superyachts partner Vy-Loan Huynh-Olivieri, aviation partner Laurence Hanley and shipping partners Alexandre Besnard and Aymeric de Tapol.

Ince also has a base in Monaco, which launched in 2011, but which operates separately to the three French offices.

Gide is one of France's largest law firms by turnover, taking in revenues of about £160m in its most recent financial year. The firm has about 500 lawyers across 12 offices in 11 countries, but currently has just one domestic base in Paris.

Gordon Dadds sealed its pre-pack acquisition of Ince's UK assets for £27.3m at the end of 2018 in a deal pared down from previous expectations. While Ince's international offices in Germany, Greece, Dubai, Singapore and Hong Kong agreed new network arrangements with Ince Gordon Dadds, continuing to trade as Ince & Co, the French bases were excluded from the deal altogether.

At the time, Gordon Dadds said it had not been able to reach agreements with Ince's international offices ahead of the 31 December completion date, and that obtaining local regulatory approvals for any such arrangements would not have been possible

Ince's Paris arm has long been regarded as something of a separate entity to the UK side of the firm, having been founded by French lawyers operating largely independently of the London headquarters.

After the French arm was excluded from the Gordon Dadds deal, multiple partners in the French market and Ince UK partners cited firms such as Stephenson Harwood, Watson Farley & Williams and HFW as among the favourites to take on the offices.