Ropes & Gray has snagged an eight-lawyer M&A and private equity team in Paris from Latham & Watkins.
The team is led by partners Denis Criton, Gaetan Gianasso and Michael Colle, who are expected to join the firm alongside a counsel and four associates.
Criton and Gianasso are both veterans of Latham of more than 20 years, while Colle joined the firm about 10 years ago as an associate. Criton and Gianasso have particular expertise in leveraged acquisitions and, between them, have worked for clients including PAI Partners, Bain Capital Private Equity, Ardian and EQT, while Gianasso’s practice covers the full spectrum of M&A and PE transactions, including hybrid capital and IPOs.
Ropes declined to comment on the hires, which continue the buildout of the Paris office it opened last March with a Clifford Chance team focused on private equity, infrastructure, banking and finance transactions.
A 10-lawyer funds and tax team joined from Linklaters earlier this year, with the office currently housing five partners and 22 lawyers according to Ropes’ website.
The firm’s push into European private equity also saw it hit Latham last year for a trio of PE lawyers to open an office in Milan.
That has come as part of a wider transatlantic hiring drive that has seen Ropes add senior talent in London, including EQT’s general counsel Paul Dali earlier this year and Cataldo Piccarreta from Latham last September as co-head of European private equity transactions.
Meanwhile, in New York, the firm has made nine lateral partner hires so far this year, most recently adding Freshfields’ leveraged finance co-head, Allison Liff.
Latham did not respond to a request for comment. A five-lawyer competition team also left the firm in Paris earlier this month to join top French independent August Debouzy.
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