Taylor Wessing has hired a team of four-lawyer team from Graf von Westphalen Bappert & Modest, as the firm bids to rebuild its Berlin office.

The team consists of property partner Patrick Brock, corporate specialist Roman Baerwaldt, tax lawyer Thomas Wisniewski and M&A specialist Burkhard Frisch. The quartet all join Taylor Wessing as as partners.

The hires follows news of the arrival corporate partner Marc-Oliver Kurth from local rival Hoffmann Liebs Fritsch & Partner, who will join the firm next month.

The appointments continue a rebuilding process for Taylor Wessing after a six-partner team quit the Anglo-German firm to launch a local practice for US firm Kirkpatrick & Lockhart Preston Gates Ellis.

That left Taylor Wessing with around 20 lawyers in Berlin and prompted German managing partner Wolfgang Rehmann to pledge to plug the gaps.

Berlin has proved a strategic minefield for UK firms in recent times, with Linklaters downsized its local offering earlier this year, while Lovells and Clifford Chance have both pulled the plug on their Berlin offices in recent years.