Jones Day has hired a four-lawyer team from Norton Rose in Paris including the head of the UK firm's French corporate practice.

Herve Castelnau joined the Paris office of Jones Day on 1 September along with three associates, two of whom – Silvain Fock-Yee and Thibaut Kazemi – have been promoted to counsel in the move.

Castelnau has been a partner with Norton Rose since 2003, when he joined the firm as part of an 11-lawyer team from French firm Sokolow Dunaud Mercadier & Carreras.

His practice focuses on M&A, privatisation, joint ventures and commercial contracts as well as corporate restructurings. His sector focus includes communications media and technology, financial institutions, energy and real estate.

Norton Rose has been reorganising its Paris office in recent years to better align with the group's global practice, with a number of lawyers opting to leave the office as a result.

The office's lawyer headcount, which peaked at 120-130, now stands at around 100. However, Norton Rose Paris head George Paterson said that the office is now in growth mode, and headcount expected to reach 150 in the long term, with four corporate partner added to the base since the start of this year.

He said: "We are continuing to build the corporate team in Paris. Our recent expansion into Africa and in particular Canada connects global Francophone markets and provides opportunities for the Paris practice and our clients internationally."

Norton Rose has seven remaining corporate partners after the departures to Jones Day, while the US firm now has eight partners in its 31-lawyer corporate team.

Jones Day Paris partner-in-charge Sophie Hagege said: "The objective for the Paris office is to grow the transactional practices. We have grown in a number of sectors and this team especially strengthens our expertise in telecoms and media, as well as our Africa desk."