Clifford Chance (CC) has hired two partners in Paris from Goodwin Procter to strengthen its European private credit offering.

Arnaud Fromion and Frédéric Guilloux have joined the UK firm's global financial markets team after eight years at Goodwin, which they joined in 2016 at the head of a team from legacy Shearman & Sterling. 

Their hire follows reports that CC private equity M&A partners Fabrice Cohen and Emmanuel Mimin and finance partner Thierry Arachtingi have been hired by Ropes & Gray in Paris ahead of its own launch in the city, tipped for early next year. A spokesperson for CC confirmed the trio's departure in a statement.

For his part Fromion focuses on leveraged, acquisition and fund finance. He led Goodwin's debt finance practice in Paris according to the firm's website and has represented banks, debt funds, financial sponsors and corporate borrowers in various financing transactions and restructurings. His recent work includes acting for Access Capital Partners in mezzanine financings and Hayfin in the financing of the acquisition of the Vivalto Santé group, a leading group of private hospitals in France, by Vivalto Partners. 

Meantime Guilloux specialises in leveraged, acquisition and corporate finance, and in restructuring. His practice focuses on advising private equity sponsors, private debt funds, and bank syndicates on complex leveraged financings, and he has recently worked with clients including Eurazeo, Hayfin and Tikehau Capital on the financing aspects of acquisitions. 

CC's Paris managing partner, Mathieu Remy, said the duo's hire was a "key step in our strategy to strengthen our position in the European leveraged finance market and deliver innovative financial solutions to our clients".

He added that Fromion's and Guilloux's experience, particularly in leveraged finance, would "significantly bolster our capabilities and enhance our service offerings to clients". 

Their hire will take CC's Paris partner headcount to around 45 and follows the firm adding data and cybersecurity expect Patrice Navarro as a partner from Hogan Lovells in October, ahead of an expected wave of AI projects work. 

The firm has also been beefing up its presence in the US, where it has made 16 senior hires this year, most recently recruiting a trio of partners from O'Melveny & Myers across private equity and restructuring and insolvency. 

Ropes & Gray has remained silent on its plans for an office in Paris, which would be its first in continental Europe. The top 10 US firm, which had revenue of nearly $3bn 2023, would mark a fairly rare entrant to the Paris market, though last summer Texan firm Bracewell opened in the city with an 11-lawyer energy team from Norton Rose Fulbright.