Baker & McKenzie hires 6 French tax litigators and a new UK Head of Transfer Pricing

Baker & McKenzie LLP announced today that its has strengthened its London Corporate Tax team with the addition of Richard Fletcher, who has extensive experience in transfer pricing. He joins the Firm from LECG, where he was a director. Richard, a chartered accountant, spent 16 years working with Arthur Andersen including a period advising on tax and accounting issues in Central and Eastern Europe. Richard, who joins as Head of UK Transfer Pricing, is not a lawyer but his position is equivalent to that of a Partner in the Corporate Tax team, where he will advise alongside the Firm’s existing transfer pricing group.

Also hot of the press is news of the expansion of the tax practice in Paris. The firm is hiring six tax litigation lawyers, led by Bernard Boutemy and Eric Meier. The team comes to the Firm from Taj. Both Bernard Boutemy and Eric Meier focus their practice on tax audits and negotiations with the French Tax Administration. They also have extensive experience in structured finance. The firm now has 32 tax lawyers in France. Bernard Boutemy began his professional career in the public domain, both with the French Tax Administration and the Administrative courts. He later joined Arthur Andersen to develop the tax audit and litigation department. In 2002, Bernard Boutemy joined Taj as a partner. Eric Meier joined Arthur Andersen in 1994, where he developed the tax audit and litigation department with Bernard Boutemy. In 2002, Eric Meier joined Taj, where he became partner in 2004.