Lovells Paris partner resigns to open a boutique

Lovells Paris partner resigns to open a boutique

Swift Litigation continues the trend of breakaway firms launching on both sides of the Channel

Hogan Lovells' head of Paris banking and finance litigation has left the law firm to open his own boutique.

Swift Litigation, the firm founded by Julien Martinet, is the third Paris boutique founded in 2022 run by attorneys with prior experience working of major international law firms.

There are few details about Martinet's venture. LinkedIn lists him as the founder of the new firm, alongside four associates and three interns, all but one of whom came from Hogan Lovells. Advisory services on complex litigation will be offered by the new firm.

The five-person Martinet team joins Hogan Lovells from French outfit Jeantet. Several of the international law firm's key clients were drawn to the firm for their 'strong relationships' at the time.

The New York-based lawyer began his professional career at New York law firm Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel in 2000, becoming a partner in 2012 before moving on to Jeantet in 2015. According to Chambers & Partners, guide, he is highly regarded.

Paris is breaking away from France and its headquarters will be in the French capital's Rue de Monceau BUISIES This follows Natasha Harrison's much-anticipated launch of her new London litigation firm, Pallas Partners, in the same week she unveiled her former employer, Boies Schiller Flexner. Disputes involving financial services will also be a major focus.

In anticipation of an 'urgent' rise in fraud cases in the banking and finance sector caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, Allen & Overy hired two disputes partners in January on the advice of rivals in the UK.

As Martinet departs Hogan Lovells' Paris office, tax counsel Laurent Ragot, a founder of M&A boutique Mermoz, also leaves the firm. Mermoz was launched in January 2022 in France to take advantage of the country's ongoing middle market deal making boom. Six of the founding partners came from the French independent private equity specialist Villechenon, making up the team of 25 attorneys.

Barton Legum and Jean-Christophe Honlet, two practice heads at Dentons in Paris, have left the firm to set up their own international arbitration boutique, respectively. Honlet Legum Arbitration in Jan 2022.

There have also been several boutique law firms established in Paris in the past few years, including ADF, which was founded by Pierre Duprey, a former Linklaters partner, in January, and Medici Law Firm, an all-female, four-partner firm that launched in September 2020.