Reed Smith has hired an eight-lawyer tax team, including three partners, from Winston & Strawn in Paris.

Partners Jean-Pierre Collet, Florence Bilger and David Colin have joined Reed Smith alongside a team of lawyers that also includes three counsel.

Collet, who previously worked at Fidal and who advises on the taxation of transactions and restructurings, headed the tax team at Winston before joining Reed Smith.

The team advises organisations and individuals, including investment funds and entrepreneurs, on a range of tax matters.

They joined Reed Smith yesterday (1 March), with the hires further strengthening an office already boosted by the mass hire of a King & Wood Mallesons (KWM) team earlier this year.

Seven partners and 11 other lawyers joined Reed Smith in Paris from KWM as part of a 50-lawyer European team from the now-defunct firm, with Reed Smith's French base now housing 66 lawyers including 22 partners.

The KWM Paris team included tax partners Sylvie Vansteenkiste, Fanny Combourieu and Raphael Bera.

Reed Smith managing partner for Europe and the Middle East, Tamara Box, said: "Following on from our recent hires across corporate, tax and private equity from KWM, these additions of talented French lawyers help us provide a truly cross-border transactional service to our clients."

According to Winston's website, the exits leave the firm with around 18 lawyers in Paris.

There have been a number of high profile moves in Paris in recent weeks, including Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer's hire of a five-partner heavyweight private equity team from Ashurst and Jones Day's hire of Freshfields' entire Paris real estate team.

This week, Winston & Strawn boosted its London office with the hire of corporate partner Angus Duncan from Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft.

Duncan's practice focuses on finance transactions, with a particular focus on securitisations of a range of assets including loans, consumer receivables, real estate and hedge fund interests.

Winston's global finance co-chairs Ron Jacobson and Mats Carlston said: "Angus fits squarely with our strategic plan to expand globally our high-end structured products practice and with core institutional clients of the firm. His reputation and experience are second to none."

Prior to joining Cadwalader as a partner in 2005, Duncan was a partner at Allen & Overy, where he spent two years as the firm's Tokyo managing partner.