Reed Smith is set to launch a Paris intellectual property (IP) practice with the hire of a five-strong team from Howrey.

Marina Couste and Francois Jonqueres will join Reed Smith as partners on 28 May, along with two associates and one paralegal, bringing the number of partners at the US firm's Paris office to 15.

At Howrey, Couste was the managing partner of the now-defunct firm's Paris office, and has represented clients including GlaxoSmithKline, Mitsubishi, Essilor, Nokia, Procter & Gamble, the Pasteur Institute and AstraZeneca.

Reed Smith Paris managing partner Benoit Charot told Legal Week: "There is a lot of demand in the Paris market for IP. Marina has a number of longstanding bluechip clients. We also have clients that we have worked with for a long time that will be interested in this practice."

Couste started her own practice, Couste & Couste, in 1985, before joining Howrey in 2005 to help set up the US firm's Paris office.

Jonqueres joined Couste's team as an associate in 2000 and became a partner in 2003, before also joining Howrey in 2005.

Howrey's partnership voted to dissolve the firm in March this year after a stream of recent partner exits.

Couste commented: "We were attracted by Reed Smith's entrepreneurial approach and the opportunities that its international platform presents our practice. We're very excited to create a new IP practice in the Paris office – it's a wonderful challenge for me and my team."

Charot added: "It's a new step in the evolution of our office and it is very good news, not just for Paris, but also for our European practices in Munich and the UK."

Reed Smith launched in Paris in 2005 with 10 lawyers and since then has grown to include more than 45 lawyers.

The office's most recent addition was corporate partner Emmanuel Vergnaud, who joined from Denton Wilde Sapte in September, along with corporate associate Mickaeal Levi.