Dechert has profited from its merger with Coudert Brothers’ Paris office by hiring arbitration star Pierre Mayer as a partner.

As first revealed on www.thelawyer.com (23 October), Mayer has been reunited with former colleagues from Coudert nearly three years after leaving the firm for Clifford Chance.

Most recently he worked from his own independent arbitration practice, the Law Offices of Pierre Mayer.

Dechert’s Paris litigation head Xavier Nyssen, one of the six partners to join the US firm from Coudert, said that Mayer had remained in contact during the period of separation.

Nyssen said Mayer’s hire was part of Dechert’s strategy to grow its international arbitration practice in London, New York and Paris, adding: “That strategy was one of the reasons we joined Dechert when we came from Coudert.

“Dechert does believe that international arbitration is going to be a key element.”