Coopers & Lybrand's legal consulting practice in Warsaw has lost its head partner to US firm Weil Gotshal & Manges.

Zdzislaw Wieckowski quit Coopers earlier this month to join Weil Gotshal as managing partner of the Warsaw office.

Coopers partner Krzysztof Pawlisz has replaced him as partner-in-charge in Warsaw.

Wieckowski, who had only been with Coopers since spring last year, said the opportunity of a partnership in a leading law firm was one he could not pass up.

Weil Gotshal has also elected two Polish legal advisers, Marek Wierzbowski and Pawel Rymarz, to partnership.

William Sievers, managing partner of the firm's Warsaw office for the past six years, will be relocating to the London office, where he will continue to work with clients in Warsaw and central Europe.

The office has also lost Ulrike Radke Fischer, a German corporate lawyer, to Cameron McKenna's Warsaw office.

“It is great that Polish lawyers are being made partners in multinational law firms and I am very proud of the fact,” said Wieckowski.

Stephen Dannhauser, executive partner at the firm, said he expected the Warsaw office to expand further.

“The demand for international legal services in Poland is expanding rapidly,” he said.

“Zdzislaw's strong background in commercial banking, real estate and project finance will dramatically expand our Warsaw capabilities in these areas.”