Practice heads at Denton moves on to launch new Paris arbitration boutique

Practice heads at Dentons moves on to launch new Paris arbitration boutique

With a team of associates, global giants like Barton Legum and Jean Christophe Honlet have inaugurated a new firm.

To launch their independent boutique in Paris, Honlet Legum Arbitration, the duo has resigned from their individual posts at Dentons.

At Dentons, Jean Christophe Honlet and Barton Legum held senior leadership positions, and were partners for thirteen years. They served as global co chair of Denton's litigation and dispute resolution practice. In the meantime, a partner for nine years, Honlet, the head of international arbitration, was a partner at legacy firm Salans for two decades.

Legum, who worked for the US State department, acted as the head counsel for the US government while defending the first arbitrations that were brought under the now-superseded NAFTA agreement. Legum is also a former chairperson of the American Bar Association's influential Section on International Law.

With two associates, two interns and a paralegal, the duo have launched their boutique. The boutique is expected to deal with matters on international arbitration, which can be both investor state disputes and commercially focused issues as well as practices as arbitrators.

About the firm's structure, they commentated that it [the boutique] would allow appointments to be accepted, which were previously turned down at other firms, because of clash of internet.

This announcement was greeted by the international arbitration community, besides earning LinkedIn congratulations from their colleagues at leading law firms. It includes LCIA chairman Audley Sheppard QC and Michael Ostrove, the co-chairperson of international arbitration at DLA Piper.

Of the innumerable number of boutiques that had been established in Paris in the last few years, including Gailliard Banifatemi Shelbaya Disputes, this new boutique would be one of them. The former firm was launched in February 2021 by the respected arbitration lawyer Emmanuel Gaillard and his seven partners from Shearman & Sterling. Another firm, the ADR disputes, was launched Pierre Duprey, the former partner of Linklaters in January 2021. Lastly, Medici law firm, all-female four partners was launched in September 2020.

Just like the arbitral powerhouse Three Crowns was formed by people from Freshfields, Jones Day and White & Case in 2014, potential clashes of interest is a major cause which led to launch of the above mentioned firms. Gaetan Verhoosel, was appointed as Queen's Counsel in the 2022 appointments round as one of Three Crowns' founding partners.

Dentons has now appointed Lawrence teh, a Singapore based personality and Paris based Anna Crevon-Tarassova as the co-heads of the firm's international arbitration practice. Both of them are experienced practitioners, with latter having worked closely with Barton Legum and Jean Christophe Honlet.

Teh, who is a strong arbitrator himself is popular for his dispute work at Dentons Rodyk. He commented, "Anna and I are looking forward to working with colleagues from all corners of the globe aiming to expand our reach and improve the practice".

This insight was welcomed by Legum, former co-head of Dentons who responded, "I believe that Lawrence and Anna would make a wonderful Dentons arbitration team, leading the firm to greater successes".