Paris

Reed Smith has bolstered its Paris intellectual property (IP) practice with the hire of a three-strong team from Dentons.

IP partner Marianne Schaffner joins as Reed Smith's new European patent practice head and will also lead the IP team in Paris, the firm has annouced.

She joins from Dentons' Paris office, where she has for the past year acted as the European head of patent litigation and national co-head of the firm's IP and technology group.

Accompanying her are two Dentons associates.

Before joining Dentons, Schaffner was a partner in Dechert's Paris office for six years and between 2006 and 2011 was a partner at Linklaters.

Her practice focuses on managing national and transnational patent disputes in the pharmaceutical, healthcare, telecommunications and electronics, chemical, mechanical and agribusiness sectors.

She said in a statement: "I am looking forward to further developing my practice and supporting the continued growth of the Paris office and the firm's European and Middle East offering."

Reed Smith has built out its Paris office in recent years, adding an eight-strong team from U.S. firm Winston & Strawn in 2017. The Paris office now comprises 65 lawyers, including 18 partners.

This year the firm has made several hires across its international offices, including in Asia where it has made lateral hires into its Beijing and Hong Kong offices.