Ex-Norton Rose duo reject international model as they establish Paris boutique
Two former Norton Rose lawyers, who left the firm’s Paris office earlier this year, have set up a boutique in the city.
Jerome Da Ros
Jérôme Da Ros and Benoit Creis will officially launch eight-lawyer firm Da Ros & Creis on 13 November with four associates, also from Norton Rose, and two consultants.
It is modelled on boutiques such as Bredin Prat and offers corporate, commercial, financing, insurance and litigation services.
Da Ros, who left Norton Rose in September, was head of insurance in Paris, while Creis, who left in July, was an associate specialising in M&A. Before joining Norton Rose Da Ros worked at Dewey & LeBoeuf, and Creis at Hammonds.
“We left before the turmoil which the office is in at the moment started,” said Da Ros, referring to the teams that left Norton Rose earlier this year (TheLawyer
.com, 14 October).
“We made our decision because most of our clients have personal relationships with us and would’ve been happy to work with us wherever we were. What we saw working for Norton Rose and other firms was that the power of the network isn’t that important. Most of our overseas offices took the work we sent for granted and wouldn’t send much back. We generated between e500,000 (£444,000) and e1m of work in London, Amsterdam and Munich, but got little back.”
Da Ros has said he hopes to expand the firm to 20 lawyers within two years. Clients of the firm include GE Capital, the XL Group and Société Générale.
