DLA Piper has hired a team of IT lawyers from Bird & Bird's Paris base led by office co-head Stephane Lemarchand.

Lemarchand, Bird & Bird's international IT co-head and Paris practice chief, has been a partner at the firm for 10 years. He will join DLA on 2 November along with a team of four associates.

He was appointed as co-managing partner of the Paris base alongside Frederique Dupuis-Toubol in January this year. Dupuis-Toubol will now continue as the sole regional managing partner, a role which until January she had held since the firm's launch in the French capital 10 years ago.