Bird & Bird has made two further additions to its partnership in the firm's Paris and Helsinki offices.

Maisa Nikkola, who joins the partnership in Finland, is head of the local employment group and specialises in employment contractual issues, trade union matters and discrimination.

Meanwhile, Gildas Louvel has joined the partnership in the corporate practice of Bird & Bird's French office. He focuses on private and public M&A, financial services and life sciences.

The two promotions bring the total number of new partners at Bird & Bird this year to 12, after 10 lawyers were made up in the firm's annual promotions round in April, including London dispute resolution lawyer Jonathan Speed.

Bird & Bird chief executive officer David Kerr said: "We obviously have our main promotions in May, but sometimes it is necessary to make appointments in the interim for business-driven reasons.

"We are seeing a surge in work in corporate and M&A in France and needed another person at the senior level to support this. In Finland, Maisa is a well-known name in the employment market and we felt we needed to honour that recognition and hard work. We are generally looking at recruitment at the moment as activity levels pick up."

The promotions come after Bird & Bird's partners approved plans to open an office in Abu Dhabi, marking the firm's launch in the Middle East market.