Four new partners at Hogan Lovells Paris

Promoting from within its own ranks has long been a hallmark of Hogan Lovells, and the latest quartet of Paris-based partners underlines, “Hogan Lovells' commitment to the long-term investment in home-grown talent as a way of responding to the needs of clients in rapidly evolving markets,” according to Xenia Legendre, managing partner of the Paris office.    

Let’s meet the freshly minted partners: Melissa Ordonez focuses her practice on commercial and investment treaty arbitration. The Franco-Colombian lawyer acts for an international clientele drawn mainly from the energy, tech and luxury goods sectors in matters including international investment disputes and arbitrations. A member of the firm's Latin American practice with substantial experience in international arbitration in the region, she trained with leading firms on both sides of the English Channel before beginning her legal career in earnest at Hogan Lovells. She is a graduate of King's College London and the Sorbonne. Her promotion brings to three the number of international arbitration partners at the Paris office.

Florian Brechon, who has been with Hogan Lovells for six and a half years, specializes in corporate law, M&A and private equity in particular, assisting managers and funds in their LBO and capital development transactions. He has postgraduate degrees in business law and commercial law from the universities of Nancy and Cardiff, respectively. Brechon began his career a decade and a half ago at Gide and was at Paul Hastings from 2012 until he joined Hogan Lovells in the spring of 2016.  

M&A and corporate law specialist Paul Leroy acts for French and international private equity funds and their directors. He has an LLM from the American University Washington College of Law. Prior to joining his current firm in 2018, Leroy had stints at Moisand Boutin & Associés, Mayer Brown and Weil.

Arnaud Deparday has been with Hogan Lovells since 2009, where his focus has been LBOs, restructuring and equity capital market transactions, in addition to M&A. He has a law degree from the Sorbonne, a post-graduate degree in tax and business law from HEC and another from Panthéon-Assas in banking and financial Law. Leroy and Deparday join Florion Brechon as partners in the corporate/M&A department.

The new year also saw the arrival of seven new counsel: Ali Chegra, Franck Dupret, Laura Medjoub and Emmanuel Vrillon-Darcy (Corporate/M&A); Maimouna Goudiaby (strategic operations, agreements and regulation); Maria Klass (banking law) and Faustine Lefevre (labor law).