Squire Patton Boggs has boosted its French roster again with double real estate partner hires from boutique AVOCATALYSE and Taylor Wessing in Paris. 

Estelle Vernejoul joins the firm from her role as founding partner of AVOCATALYSE, which she established in 2018. She moves across alongside associate Angélique Charrier. Thomas Coëffé joins from Taylor Wessing where he was a real estate counsel. He joins the firm along with real estate associate Elise Milani. 

The latest hires come just a few weeks after the firm made its third lateral partner hire in Paris for the month of May when it brought on private equity specialist Maxime Desquesne from Lamartine Conseil. His arrival followed those of private equity partner Anthony Guillaume from DLA Piper and leveraged finance partner Benjamin Marché who joined from Shearman & Sterling. 

Following the latest additions the office now boasts 22 partners, four counsel and 21 associates. 

Squire’s European real estate leader, Matthew Dalzell,  said building a strong real estate team was “important for the continued development of our services” in the region. 

The firm’s Paris managing partner, Carol Sportes, added: “With our growth in Paris we are seeing increasing demand for real estate, both in terms of supporting the transactional activity of other practices, as well as servicing client needs more generally. Estelle and Thomas also offer global synergies in key industry sectors such as hospitality and leisure and will be very much valued locally and at a firmwide level.”

Vernejoul spent five years as an associate at Eversheds Sutherland before departing to set up her own firm in 2018. She specialises in real estate transactions, portfolio management and leasing, real estate and construction projects, litigation and urban planning law, Squire said. 

Coëffé, meanwhile, focuses his practice on large-scale real estate transactions and projects in the hospitality sector, with particular experience in M&A, outsourcing and financing, as well as asset management matters. 

The Paris legal market has seen significant lateral activity partly fuelled by a strong market in France for mid-market private equity and M&A deals. Last October, Shearman & Sterling added a four-partner PE and M&A team from DLA Piper that included the latter’s former co-managing partner for France, Xavier Norlain, while in September Willkie Farr & Gallagher hired private equity specialist Tiana Rambatomanga from Stephenson Harwood. 

In February, it emerged that the head of Hogan Lovells' Paris banking and finance litigation practice, Julien Martinet, had quit the firm with his team to launch his own financial disputes firm, Swift Litigation.