Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe's respected Paris tax head, Stephane Salou, is joining Norton Rose in a coup for the top 15 UK firm.

Salou, who spent a period at the helm of Orrick's Paris office and is highly rated in the French market, will join the City firm's local office on 9 May.

He has worked with a number of the leading French banks, including key Norton Rose clients BNP Paribas, Calyon and Societe Generale.

The move marks the latest departure from Orrick since the firm's high profile merger with Dewey Ballantine fell apart at the beginning of this year.

Other departures from the Paris office include finance partner Sylvie Perrin, who joined Ashurst earlier this month and former Paris managing partner Raphaele Courtier, who moved to Slaughter and May best friend Bredin Prat.

Paris lawyers pointed to the San Francisco-based firm's merger with local boutique Rambaud Martel in 2005 as the source of many of the departures from the office, but the French arm is not the only Orrick office to have seen departures since the Dewey merger fell through.

Significant departures from its US practice include a four-lawyer corporate team that left for McDermott Will & Emery.

The Salou hire is a boost for Norton Rose's Paris arm, which also recently recruited Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer aviation partner Glenn Matheson.