Lefèvre snares Kramer Levin's head of real estate with swoop on Paris office

French independent Lefèvre Pelletier & Associés has hired the head of real estate from Berwin Leighton Paisner's (BLP) former US ally Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel.

Lefèvre has brought in real estate finance partner David Blondel from the Paris office of Kramer Levin, which operated as the French office of BLP until the UK firm broke off the alliance last year.

Blondel focuses on real estate transactions. He joined Kramer Levin in 2006 from the in-house legal department at Natexis Banque Populaires, where he was head of legal for the real estate department for six years.

Lefèvre has also promoted real estate associate Véronique Lagarde to partner, taking the partnership up to 33 members.