Kramer Levin’s Paris office will be spun out ahead of the New York firm’s landmark merger with Herbert Smith Freehills (HSF), it has emerged.

Kramer Levin’s sizeable Paris arm was conspicuous by its absence from the joint statement released on Monday by HSF and Kramer Levin when they unveiled plans to form a 2,700-lawyer firm with revenue in excess of $2bn.

It subsequently emerged that the Paris office is not part of the merger plan, which will be subject to partner votes at both firms.

“This combination is about our ambitions for future growth in the US, and Kramer Levin Paris will not be part of the combined firm,” HSF said in a statement. 

While Kramer Levin’s New York headquarters dwarfs HSF’s 19-partner office in the city in terms of both size and prestige, in Paris it is HSF with the larger footprint – more than 110 lawyers to Kramer’s 63. 

Nevertheless, Kramer Levin’s Paris office is large for a US firm with only 340 lawyers overall and boasts overlapping strengths with HSF’s French team in several key areas, which was likely a factor behind the decision not to include it in the merger. 

Both firms are ranked by the Legal 500 in France in M&A; EU, competition and distribution; banking and finance: transactional work; banking and finance: bank regulatory; dispute resolution: commercial litigation; and dispute resolution: stock market litigation. 

Separately Kramer Levin’s Paris team also boasts a band 2 venture and growth capital practice, its highest ranking alongside its band 2 position in bank regulatory, while HSF’s team has several band 1 practices including compliance, data privacy, IP and energy. 

Kramer Levin did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The firm acquired its Paris office back in 1999 from legacy Roger & Wells when it broke away from a merger with Clifford Chance.

The firm’s Paris office is led by co-managing partners Dana Anagnostou and Sébastien Pontillo. Anagnostou was a corporate associate at Roger & Wells prior to the acquisition and took the helm in early 2020, while Pontillo stepped up at the start of this year having joined the firm in 2021 as part of team hire from Eversheds Sutherland to boost its private equity and banking and finance practices.

HSF and Kramer Levin have no plans to make cuts beyond the Paris spin-off in any of their respective regions as part of the merger, Law.com has reported.

The firm will be called Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer globally and HSF Kramer in the US and have revenue of more than $2bn. It will have 120 US partners based across offices in New York, Washington DC and Silicon Valley.