Reed Smith has grown its corporate arm in Paris with the hire of corporate head Emmanuel Vergnaud from Denton Wilde Sapte.

Vergnaud is set to join the firm's Europe and Middle East corporate group from Dentons this month alongside corporate associate Mickaeal Levi.

Vergnaud was head of Dentons' corporate team in Paris for three years and specialises in cross-border and national M&A transactions with a particular emphasis on private equity. He will be Reed Smith's third partner in the Paris corporate practice.

Reed Smith Paris managing partner Benoit Charot said: "We want to be a major player in the Paris market and one focus is to complete our corporate team. The hire of Emmanuel takes us one step closer to this.

"This is not the end of our recruitment strategy; we are still looking to build the office, notably in corporate, finance and tax."

Reed Smith European and Middle East corporate group head James Wilkinson said: "Paris is a key element to the European and Middle East corporate offering and we've been looking for a while to bolster this area in quite a difficult market. We are also actively looking more generally across all of our Europe and Middle East offices to grow our corporate capabilities as market conditions improve."

The firm boosted its corporate practice in the UK this month with the hire of partner Samantha Roberts from Holman Fenwick Willan.