Ex-Allen & Overy partners launch new firm

Four ex-Allen & Overy partners have gone into partnership to create Bichot & Associés.

Nicolas Bichot, Patrice Couturier, Charles-Noël van den Broek and Mathieu Odet will offer private equity funds and other clients “personalised assistance… by adopting a hands-on approach for each case”, with regards to M&A transactions and tax matters.

The independent firm has set out a short-term goal of finding 20 lawyers to add to its roster, but a spokesperson could not confirm if the partners will be targeting some of their old colleagues in some of Europe’s biggest name law firms.

Nicolas Bichot

Leading the charge will be Bichot who ended an 11-year stint with Allen & Overy, most recently acting as the firm’s head of corporate/M&A in its Paris office.

His deputies include Couturier, who spent 20 years as a tax specialist working across various shops including magic circle firms Slaughter & May and Allen & Overy; and van den Broek and Odet, two private equity and M&A specialists who worked alongside Bichot during their time at Allen & Overy’s Paris office.

In a statement Bichot expressed enthusiasm about the new endeavour and his reunion with Couturier who left Allen & Overy in 2009, saying “we have been working together for several years now and we are accustomed to conceptualising, structuring and closing complex operations”.

Allen & Overy was not available for comment at press time.