Gide Loyrette Nouel has added two partners to its Manhattan arm as the independent French giant looks to bulk up its US practice.

The 500-lawyer firm has taken finance expert Marianne Rosenberg from Thelen Reid & Priest and tax partner Robert Mac-Donald from Hunton & Williams.

Rosenberg joined Thelen Reid in 2003 after five years at Link-laters, where she had headed the UK firm's New York office. Her clients include Societe Nationale des Chemins de Fer Francais (SNCF) and Metro de Lisboa.

MacDonald has been a partner at Hunton & Williams since 1994 and served as co-head of the derivatives practice.

The duo will join New York office head David Malamed at the office, which was founded in 1984, and will now boast three partners.

In 2003, the firm launched a finance practice in London when it snared a four-partner US and UK-qualified team from the City practice of Chicago leader Sidley Austin Brown & Wood.