Salans has raided Taylor Wessing, hiring a five-lawyer team to boost its Paris real estate practice.

Taylor Wessing partners François Verdot and Antonia Raccat join Salans in Paris along with three associates. They will jointly manage Salans’ real estate practice in France with Henry Lazarski.

The team hire takes the practice up to five partners and 10 associates and will boost the group’s visibility in Paris.

Evan Lazar, co-chairman of global real estate at Salans, said: “We are leveraging our relationships in robust emerging markets to enter more established markets where we regularly compete on the same playing field as magic circle firms.”

Before joining Taylor Wessing, Verdot and Raccat were lawyers at US firm Jones Day, where they handled a practice focused on international real estate funds.

Anglo-Saxon firms are currently driving a busy Paris market. In the past few months Field Fisher Waterhouse launched its first French office with a seven-partner raid on Dubarry Le Douarin Veil and Hogan & Hartson took on three partners from Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer.