Hogan Lovells has hired Sébastien Bonnard as a partner in its Paris office, adding a four-lawyer arbitration team from Hughes Hubbard & Reed.
The move comes as the firm continues to invest in its disputes practice ahead of its planned combination with Cadwalader in July 2026, a deal endorsed by partners earlier this year.
Bonnard joins with counsel Sabrina Touchard and associates Eleni Jacovides and Florence Warsmann.
The move strengthens Hogan Lovells’ Paris arbitration bench for commercial and investment treaty disputes, particularly in construction, infrastructure, energy and mining. Bonnard serves as both counsel and arbitrator in proceedings under major arbitral rules, including those of the ICC, ICSID, LCIA and LMAA. He is also registered on the ICC France list of arbitrators.
The firm’s existing Paris arbitration practice, led by Melissa Ordonez, has handled a series of significant mandates, including acting for the Republic of Colombia in ICSID proceedings involving claims exceeding $350m.
Bonnard and Ordonez will now jointly lead the Paris arbitration practice. The enlarged team will have more than a dozen fee earners.
Des Hogan, global head of disputes, said Bonnard was “a well-known, first-class arbitration practitioner with an exceptional reputation in commercial and construction disputes”.
“Coupled with our existing strengths, this hire positions our Paris team, and more broadly our global team, to continue to compete at the very highest levels for our clients’ most sophisticated mandates. Paris is a very important market for our practice, and the region we call FRIS (France, Italy and Spain) is one of key hubs of our firm,” Hogan noted.
Paris office managing partner Xenia Legendre said that Bonnard’s arrival “reflects the ambition and momentum of our arbitration practice in France and across the firm”.
Legendre added that “Paris is one of the world's most important arbitration hubs, and together with the strength of our dynamic existing team, this further positions us as a destination platform for top clients.”
The French capital is home to the ICC Court of Arbitration as it prepares to launch its latest set of arbitral rules in June.
Bonnard said: “The strength and momentum of the Paris team, together with the firm’s upcoming transformational combination with Cadwalader, make this a particularly exciting moment to join.”
Before joining Hogan Lovells, Bonnard was the managing partner of Hughes Hubbard’s Paris office and the head of its international arbitration practice for Europe, Africa, and the Middle East.
Bonnard began his career at Gide Loyrette Nouel, working for nearly eleven years in that firm’s international arbitration practice from 2000 to 2011. In 2011, he moved to Lacourte Raquin Tatar as a partner, where he led the practice for two years.
He then joined Brown Rudnick in 2013, launching the firm’s Paris office and serving as its managing partner, before departing in September 2022 to join Hughes Hubbard, a move that was followed by the closure of Brown Rudnick’s French arm.
The wider Hogan Lovells disputes practice welcomed a team from White & Case in 2024, helping to offset the 2022 departure of Julien Marinet and a six-strong team to launch boutique firm Swift Litigation.
The firm has also experienced a number of other high-profile departures in Paris in recent years. Thomas Kendra left for Kennedys in November 2024, while Laurent Gouiffès, formerly head of the Paris office, departed after 16 years to launch Gouiffès Arbitration in December 2025. Three Paris private equity partners left for Proskauer Rose in February.
Hogan Lovells' wider disputes expansion, meanwhile, has included a number of lateral hires and promotions. The firm's 2026 partner promotion round included six litigation specialists and two counsel promotions for London arbitration lawyers Scott Macpherson and Michael Taylor.
In 2024, the firm recruited Singapore arbitration partner Rob Palmer from Ashurst and Hong Kong disputes partner Maria Sit from Dechert. It later added London competition litigation partners Edward Coulson and Andrew Leitch from BCLP, as well as a four-partner Washington, DC, commercial litigation team from Kramer Levin ahead of that firm's combination with Herbert Smith Freehills.
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