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.

Lemarchand specialises in advising IT service providers on litigation matters, strategic project outsourcing and cross-border transactions.

Bird & Bird has replaced him as co-head of the international IT group with German partner Alexander Duisberg.

DLA global co-head of IP and IT Simon Levine said: "What we have been trying to do is build our group as a whole in Europe so that we have a full service offering in intellectual property, IT and media/sport.

"We wanted to make some headway in those areas that have a particularly strong market offering and Paris was one of the primary candidates with a lot of client demand for technology and outsourcing work. We will be looking to grow further over the coming months, particularly in areas of mainland Europe such as Spain and Central and Eastern Europe."

DLA appointed Jean-Philippe Sorba as regional managing partner for its Paris office in April this year, replacing Steven De Keyser, who had acted as interim managing partner since 2009.

The UK top 10 firm's Paris office has 20 partners, of which four work in the intellectual property and technology practice.