Jones Day has boosted its recently launched Duesseldorf base with the hire of a team from Luther, while SJ Berwin has also bulked up in Germany with a double partner hire from White & Case.

Luther banking partner Claudia Leyendecker is joining Jones Day's Duesseldorf base – which opened in February this year – alongside three lawyers. She has been an equity partner at Luther since 2008.

During her stint at the German firm, she headed the banking, finance and capital markets division, before which she was at Beiten Burkhardt.

Duesseldorf partner-in-charge Ansgar Rempp commented: "The addition of Claudia and her team is another important step in the rapid and successful expansion of our new office as well as our strategically important banking and finance practice."

The move comes at the same time as expansion for SJ Berwin in Germany, with the firm taking on two partners from White & Case.

White & Case banking partner Sabine Schomaker and Clemens Niedner, who joins SJ Berwin as a restructuring partner, will join the firm's Frankfurt finance practice at the start of 2013 along with an associate.

Senior partner Stephen Kon said: "Finance is a growth area for us, and one that we are focusing on internationally. Their recruitment, along with other recent additions to the finance practice across Europe, will be a significant contribution to the consolidation of this important area of the firm's practice."

The firm's Frankfurt practice has also added employment partner Barbara Geck from employment specialist firm JUSTEM. Before joining JUSTEM in 2009, Geck was a partner at Beiten Burkhardt.

The hires for SJ Berwin come after the Frankfurt office picked up former Dewey & LeBeouf structured finance and capital markets partner Walburga Kullmann in May, as well as counsel Raphael Pasiek and three associates.

Jones Day last month outlined plans to follow up its Duesseldorf office launch, which went live in March this year, with the opening of an Amsterdam office in early 2013, in a bid to expand its European footprint.