Coudert re-ignites Paris with partner hires

Coudert Brothers is working to rebuild its embattled Paris office with the hire of two new partners.

Former EY Law tax partner Yann de Kergos is set to join the firm as head of the tax department, with two EY Law associates.

The appointment comes just months after the Paris head of tax, Jacques Messeca, left for Eversheds.

At the same time, the firm is boosting its international arbitration practice with the hire of Eduardo Silva Romero. The current deputy secretary general of the International Court of Arbitration of the Chamber of Commerce in Paris, Romero is set to join Coudert Brothers as a partner later in the year.

Coudert Brothers has suffered a growing tide of defections from its European operations in recent months. In Paris, these include the loss of corporate partner Patrick Letourneur earlier this year and the departure of Jacques Buhart to Herbert Smith in July 2003.

Over the past 12 months, the firm has lost its Milan outpost and its Munich office to DLA and Dechert respectively, and as first revealed by The Lawyer (23 August 2004), merger talks between Coudert and Squire Sanders and Dempsey collapsed amid concerns over the firm’s international strategy.