Goodwin Procter has scooped up a team of six corporate partners from KWM's local office to set up its own offering in Paris, including local office head Christophe Digoy. Mr Digoy will help launch Goodwin Procter in Paris at the end of the summer together with KWM global board member Maxence Bloch and partners Jérôme Jouhanneaud, Thomas Maitrejean, William Robert and Pierre-Louis Sevegrand. All six partners have given notice at the Sino-Australian KWM.

The Paris office will be Goodwin Procter's tenth office globally and its fourth outside the United States, alongside practices in London, Frankfurt and Hong Kong. The launch will continue a period of string growth across Goodwin Procter's private equity practice in Europe after the opening of its UK office last year and its German practice in January. According to chairman David Hashmall, the firm's Paris presence will respond to strong client demand for private equity expertise in Europe.

'It is not our firm's strategy to just open offices around the world, it's about what we call purpose driven growth,' he said.

KWM recently announced a strategic restructure which will cut around 15 per cent of its partnership in the UK, Europe and the Middle East. There is no suggestion that the firm's Paris departures, which make up the bulk of its local private equity practice, are connected with the restructure. A spokesperson for KWM confirmed that the exits were voluntary resignations.

'The firm is disappointed in their decision and active steps are being taken to replace them,' they said.

Source: The American Lawyer