Norton Rose has relocated a senior Paris partner to China in a bid to meet increased demand for advice from Chinese banks.

Finance partner Nigel Ward joined the firm's Beijing office late last month (22 June) and will be the fifth partner in the 18-lawyer practice.

The firm had just one partner practising finance law in Beijing but is hoping to further grow the group, which also includes four associates.

Ward had been based in Paris since the office launched in 1990. He has broad finance experience with a particular focus on shipping and project finance and headed the Paris banking group as well as the local shipping finance and structured trade and commodity finance teams.

Alain Gautron has taken over as head of the shipping group, Anne Lapierre as head of banking and Marc Hamilton as head of structured trade.

Norton Rose China practice head Peter Burrows said: "There is an increasing amount of international banking work in China. Chinese banks are currently some of a limited few with money to lend. In the last 12-18 months, we have seen demand for finance advice really begin to snowball."