Winston & Strawn Adds 11 Members in Transactional Team in Paris

Winston & Strawn Adds 11 Members in Transactional Team in Paris

The premier law firm Winston & Strawn has added an 11-strong transactional team in Paris from local boutique Hoche Avocats.

The multi-disciplinary group is headed by Grine Lahreche, a specialist in private equity and mergers and acquisitions, and includes three other partners: Sophie Dechaumet (labour), Edith Boucaya (corporate/macro/finance) and Ariane Berthoud (finance) – along with counsel Jérôme Mas and Christophe Marie and five associates.

Jérôme Herbet, managing partner of Winston & Strawn Paris in his statement expressed, that the arrival of this transactional team showed firm’s ambition to grow. “It is also a strong signal given by the firm about its interest in the French market and, generally, the European market (including the United Kingdom) when other firms on the other side of the Atlantic decided to close their Paris representation,” he commented.

Prior joining to Winston & Strawn, Lahreche he had worked for Hoche for five years and before that he was a partner at the French company LL Berg. His expertise lies in providing advisory services to investment funds and large groups in connection with their LBO transactions, capital restructuring transactions and disposals-acquisitions.

Sophie Dechaumet, in addition to working on complicated litigation cases and negotiated departures, handles the labor law issues of M&A, private equity, and restructuring transactions.

Berthoud specializes in finance and has substantial experience in the financing of acquisitions, LBOs, syndicated loans, and project financing.

Boucaya advises on acquisitions or disposals of interests or assets, in implementing strategic partnerships and restructuring projects, both in France and abroad. Additionally, she assists clients in connection with debt restructuring.

Winston’s Paris Finance lead Mounir Letayf initiated the team’s hire, and expressed his views by stating, “Our goal is to establish a basis for the firm’s long-term growth and to give ourselves the means to gain greater market shares. To this end, we must reach a critical size.”

With the addition of the new hires, Winston now has 35 laywers in Paris, including 14 partners. The firm’s Paris team focuses on areas including cross-border M&A, banking and finance, litigation and arbitration, while its healthcare practice is one of the largest in the market and works with clients including Bridgepoint and Ipsos.

Gilles Bigot, who was longtime head of the Paris office and co-leads the Health Law practice with Julie Vern, said the groups’ skills complement those already present at the firm and create synergies in key business sectors for Winston & Strawn, such as health and new technologies, both in France and abroad.