Linklaters Hires Veteran Public Law and Regulatory Partner from Weil in Paris, Rebuilding French Practice After Recent Departures

Linklaters Paris has hired a senior public law and regulatory partner from Weil, Gotshal & Manges, bringing across a three-lawyer team in a move described as quickly making up for a partner departure to Jones Day earlier in the same week. The hire follows a separate earlier blow to Weil's French public law capability: just three months before this move, Weil lost the head of its French public law and government affairs practice to Bredin Prat, a leading independent French firm. The cumulative departures represent a significant depletion of Weil's French regulatory and public law bench. The named incoming partner is Marc Lordonnois, who joins Linklaters Paris with two additional lawyers from the Weil team. Public law and regulatory practices in Paris cover matters including administrative law challenges to regulatory decisions, government affairs, and EU regulatory proceedings — work that has grown in strategic importance as EU regulatory activity has intensified across financial services, technology, and energy sectors. For Linklaters, the hire strengthens a practice area directly relevant to its cross-border EU regulatory advisory work, at a moment when the Paris office's positioning in French public law had been challenged by the Jones Day departure.