Squire Patton Boggs has made a double hire from the Royal Bank of Scotland, including the bank's former head of transaction management for real estate and housing finance, Nick Bell.

Bell is joining Squires' Leeds office as a partner, and is joined at the firm by RBS colleague Leanne Keyte, a senior director in the real estate finance transaction management team.

Bell advises on acquisition finance and cross-border corporate transactions, refinancing and restructurings, with a focus on property investment, development finance and PFI projects. He is a former partner at Lupton Fawcett and Ward Hadaway.

Keyte, meanwhile, spent 17 years at RBS, advising on syndicated, development and investment deals. She is joining Squires' London office as a director.

Shoosmiths has hired Dechert London corporate partner Simon Briggs to its Milton Keynes office. Briggs has been a partner at Dechert since 2012, having previously been at Dewey & LeBouef's London office. He specialises in public and private M&A as well as joint ventures.

Gowling WLG has hired Stephenson Harwood head of environment and planning Ben Stansfield to its London office. Stansfield has advised on a wide range of complex issues such as the development and consenting of renewable energy projects and other infrastructure, environmental permitting and licensing, and international environmental law.

Bates Wells Braithwaite has boosted its public and regulatory group with the addition of Pennington Manches' professional regulation team. The group is led by partner Nicole Curtis, who advises on regulatory, disciplinary and public law. Consultants Geoffrey Hudson and Katrina Wingfield and associate Neil Wilks will also be making the move alongside Curtis. 

Bird & Bird has boosted its continental European offering with the hire of two partners. White collar crime partner Jean Tamalet joins the firm's Paris office from his firm Tamalet & Associes, a corporate crime boutique he founded and has run since 2011. He has a particular focus on matters relating to financial offences and criminal liability in France and internationally.

The firm has also hired Simmons Amsterdam partner Michiel Wurfbain to its corporate practice. He has experience advising on cross-border M&A, private equity, venture capital matters.

Eversheds Sutherland has added a partner to its commercial team in Paris with the hire of Hogan Lovells senior associate Vincent Denoyelle.

Denoyelle, who specialises in internet and IT law, joins the firm after eleven years at Hogan Lovells. He is also a former in-house lawyer at London-listed staffing service SThree.

Mason Hayes & Curran has appointed Daragh O'Shea as a partner in the financial services team, reappointing him after a period of time spent working as legal counsel with Black Sea Trade and Development Bank.

TLT has hired corporate partner Damien Bechelli as a partner in its Glasgow. Bechelli moves to TLT from DWF, where he had been a partner for 17 years. He specialises in providing corporate and commercial advice to local, national and international clients including PLCs, investment funds, financial intermediaries and owner-managed businesses. The move follows TLT's recent acquisition of Glaswegian real estate firm Leslie Wolfson & Co.