UK firm DLA Piper has added a new partner to its litigation and regulatory practice in Paris from US firm King & Spalding.

Ruxandra Lazar has joined the firm after eight years as a counsel in the public law department of King & Spalding’s Paris office, prior to which she had stints at Herbert Smith Freehills and Linklaters.

Lazar will work from within the DLA Piper’s public law team, led in Paris by Jérôme Pentecoste, and brings more than 15 years’ experience providing public law and litigation advice and advising on high-profile litigation proceedings before administrative courts and the Constitutional Council.

Her work focuses on privately financed public projects and administrative legislation, particularly in the energy and infrastructure sectors, which the firm said complements Pentecoste’s public contract experience.

Philippe Danesi, country managing partner and head of employment in France, said Lazar’s hire “furthers our aim of providing our clients with the best advice in the environmental and energy sectors and is reinforced by the recent appointment of Jean-Luc Heckenroth as counsel in our litigation and regulatory team." 

Fabien Ganivet, head of DLA Piper's litigation and regulatory practice in France, added that Lazar’s experience "allows for greater opportunities to work with clients in administrative litigation and international markets.

“We are now able to offer economic or institutional players a global approach to litigation advice, particularly in regulated sectors. Ruxandra’s appointment also increases our focus on innovation and entrepreneurship and we are thrilled to welcome her to the team,” he said.

Another international firm to strengthen its litigation offering in the French capital recently is BCLP, which added a quartet from White & Case last month made up of the latter’s head of commercial and civil litigation in Paris, Philippe Métais, alongside newly-minted partner Elodie Valette and two associates.

Going the other way, DLA Piper saw its Paris team depleted at the end of last month when it lost a quartet of corporate partners to Shearman & Sterling, including the firm’s co-managing partner in France, Xavier Norlain, and the heads of corporate and finance and restructuring.

And the month before, the firm lost a four-strong corporate and insurance team in Germany comprising a partner, counsel and two associates to Herbert Smith Freehills.