Bredin falls prey to Veil Jourde rebuild
Bredin Prat has lost one of its ex-Slaughter and May partners to domestic rival Veil Jourde, which has continued to rebuild with the hire of tax specialist Yves-Charles Zimmermann.
Zimmermann joined Slaughters' Paris office in 1997 from Deloitte & Touche, making partner in 2002.
He moved to Bredin Prat as of counsel when the firm absorbed Slaughters' Paris office in May 2006.
Zimmermann told The Lawyer: "It's an opportunity that I wanted to grab. Veil Jourde is building up an M&A capacity and that's one of the reasons why I wanted to join the team.
"I just wanted a different experience."
His practice focuses on the tax aspects of M&A deals, project finance and restructuring, as well as general tax advice to corporate clients.
Zimmermann said he developed this practice during his nine years at Slaughters rather than the nine months he was at Bredin Prat. "Most of my experience came from my time at Slaughter and May," he said.
Slaughters had eight partners in its Paris office, but only three of those remain at Bredin Prat following Zimmermann's departure.
Tax partner Pierre-Pascal Bruneau joined the Paris office of Debevoise & Plimpton, while corporate finance partner Antoine-Audoin Maggiar joined Berwin Leighton Paisner ahead of the handover.
Corporate partners Peter Deckers and Andrew Maclean remained at Slaughters, which has kept a small representative office in the French capital.
Zimmermann becomes the third lateral hire for Veil Jourde in a month.
The firm launched a real estate practice with the hire of Emmanuel Rosenfeld from White & Case. Managing partner Jean Veil has also brought his brother Pierre-Francois Veil on board from Dubarry le Douarin Veil.
The firm is rebuilding after US firms Gibson Dunn & Crutcher and Mayer Brown Rowe & Maw raided Veil Jourde for more than 10 lawyers last year.
