DLA Piper has bagged two partners for its rapidly expanding Paris practice after a raid on the local arm of City firm Denton Wilde Sapte.

Dentons corporate partners Francois Serres and Lionel Koehler-Magne have joined DLA Piper's office in the French capital, becoming the latest in a string of partner-level appointments made by the transatlantic giant in recent months.

Serres and Koehler-Magne both have wide-based corporate practices, with Serres having a particular bent towards the energy sector. Serres left Dentons in 2000 to become a partner at Bird & Bird before returning to the firm, this time as a partner, in 2001.