Taking its second step to expand its private equity (PE) practice in Europe, Goodwin Procter has turned to King & Wood Mallesons (KWM) for the second time in 12 months with six partners, including KWM’s Paris head, to launch a PE practice.
The team move will see KWM Paris managing partner and co-head of corporate Christophe Digoy join Goodwin, alongside partners Maxence Bloch, Jérôme Jouhanneaud and Thomas Maitrejean. They are expected to be joined by KWM partners Pierre-Louis Sévegrand and William Robert.
Digoy specialises in M&A and leveraged buyout transactions for French and foreign private equity funds and has headed the Paris office since 2012.
The team previously worked at Clifford Chance in Paris and joined SJ Berwin in 2003, which later merged with KWM in October 2013.
Goodwin Procter chairman David Hashmall said: ‘While we are initially focused on building our French private equity and M&A platform, we see in Paris attractive future opportunities that align with Goodwin’s other focus areas, including technology, life sciences, real estate and more.’
All four partners will be based in the new Paris office which will launch following completion of their notice periods.
The team hires comes after the firm set its sights on creating a private equity practice and hired KWM City corporate co-head Richard Lever to launch the firm’s City PE practice in April last year.
The new Paris launch comes just five months after the firm announced it was setting up shop in Frankfurt, establishing a real estate capital markets platform with four of Ashurst’s six Frankfurt real estate partners.
The Paris office will be Goodwin’s third launch in Europe after opening in London in 2008.
jaishree.kalia@legalease.co.uk
