Gibson Dunn Celebrates 50 Years in Paris, Adds Five-Lawyer Team

Gibson Dunn & Crutcher’s Paris office turns 50 this year and to mark the occasion it said it has lured a team of five lawyers from Ashurst to launch new litigation and finance practices in the city.

All five lawyers “will be joining” Gibson Dunn’s Paris office as partners soon, a Gibson Dunn spokeswoman said.

The group includes Jean-Pierre Farges, who founded Ashurst’s dispute-resolution and restructuring practices in Paris and Bertrand Delaunay, who served two years as managing partner of Ashurst’s Paris office and focuses on private M&A and private equity transactions, including leveraged buyouts and joint ventures, among other things.

Others in the group include Pierre-Emmanuel Fender, who specializes in disputes resolution, including litigation and commercial arbitration and Eric Bouffard, who covers cross-border litigation, commercial arbitration and international trade disputes, among other things.

Amanda Bevan, still listed as “counsel” on Ashurst’s website, focuses her practice on domestic and cross-border finance practice on debt restructuring and distressed lending for borrowers, among other areas.

Asked for comment about the moves, a spokeswoman for London-based Ashurst said via email that the “Paris office is going through a rebuild” and that the firm plans to say more next week. She said that at the firm’s Paris office “the process of identifying and hiring partners who match the capability we want for the network is well underway.”

Gibson Dunn chairman and managing partner Ken Doran, said in a press release statement that the firm is celebrating its half-century mark in Paris with a “transformational step.” The new team “will complement our European disputes practice and at the same time enhance the firm’s restructuring and transactional practices,” he said.

Gibson Dunn said it also recently added four technology lawyers in Paris, anchored by partner Ahmed Baladi, formerly a partner with Allen & Overy, and launched a litigation practice in its Frankfurt, Germany office with Finn Zeidler, a white collar partner poached from Latham & Watkins.