France's Jeantet taps Gide for energy hire

Hugues de La Forge joins Jeantet from Gide’s Casablanca office, where he was a senior associate focusing on energy and natural resources. His hire continues the aggressive development of Jeantet’s energy team, which has doubled in size to eight lawyers in the past year.

Team leader and partner Thierry Lauriol told The Lawyer there had been “an incredible increase” in energy work in the past year. He said he expected the team and the work to continue growing.

Lauriol said although financing and contract work on energy and infrastructure projects made up the bulk of Jeantet’s work, there had also been a significant amount of activity in litigation and regulatory instructions.

De La Forge’s experience in North Africa will contribute to the development of Jeantet’s Africa and sub-Sahara practice. Lauriol pointed to recent regulatory work in Nigeria and Mali as examples of where Jeantet wanted to build up its profile.

Although de La Forge will work closely with Jeantet’s Morocco office, he is relocating to Paris following his appointment.