Simmons & Simmons has expanded its Paris office, hiring partner Jérôme Patenotte and of counsel Sophie Mesnier-Teissedre, as well as a senior associate.

Patenotte, who specialises in mergers and acquisitions, will head the firm’s new private equity practice. He joins from Gowling WLG (formerly Wragge & Co), which he founded in 2010 with nine other partners. He has more than 25 years’ experience in M&A and has developed an expertise in private equity with French mid-cap funds and in corporate law with a foreign, mainly American, client base. He also has expertise in new technologies.