Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has been snubbed by one of France’s top corporate partners, Gerard Mazet, who this week left leading French firm Jeantet & Associes for white shoe firm Sullivan & Cromwell.

Mazet, along with fellow senior partner Jean-Pierre Le Gall, are leaving Jeantet two months after its failed merger talks with White & Case to join Sullivans’ Paris office – becoming the first partner-level lateral hires in the firm’s history.