September 14, 2011 6:09 PM

Jones Day Lands Four Lawyers from Norton Rose in Paris

Posted by Tom Huddleston Jr.

Hervé Castelnau, the former head of Norton Rose's telecommunications, intellectual property, and IT practice in Paris and three former associates left left the firm for Jones Day's Paris office earlier this month.

Castelnau is now an M&A partner at Jones Day, according to a statement by Jones Day. Thibaut Kazemi and Silvain Fock-Yee, both Norton Rose associates in Paris, joined the Jones Day office as counsel and Alice Nepa, another former Paris-based Norton Rose associate, will become an associate at Jones Day, the firm's statement said. All started at Jones Day at the beginning of September. (The moves were originally reported by U.K. publication Legal Week.)

The new arrivals will work generally on corporate and M&A matters, focusing on technology, media, and telecommunications, along with emerging technologies in Europe and Africa, according to Jones Day.

Castelnau, 47, became a partner at Norton Rose in 2003 after arriving from French firm Sokolow Dunaud Mercadier & Carreras. He has worked on a variety of international transactions and bids for telecom licenses for operators such as France Telecom, Maroc Telecom, and Vodaphone.

Jones Day's Paris partner-in-charge, Sophie Hagege, told Legal Week that the firm plans to continue growing its transactional practices in Paris, where it currently has 31 corporate lawyers. "We have grown in a number of sectors and this team especially strengthens our expertise in telecoms and media, as well as our Africa desk," she said.

The departure leaves Norton Rose with six corporate partners in Paris, according to the firm's Web site . The office lost another group of former Sokolow lawyers last summer, when four corporate finance partners left for Heenan Blaikie due to unhappiness over the direction of the office, according to Legal Week. The office also lost a five-lawyer team left to Stephenson Harwood in September 2010.

Norton Rose Paris head George Patterson told Legal Week the firm has added four new corporate partners in Paris this year, and he expects to add 50 lawyers to the Paris staff of 100 in the long term.

 

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