Paul, who has been a partner with magic circle law firm Linklaters since 2000, will join Bird & Bird in the coming weeks.
He will become the third partner in the firm’s German IT group, which is headed up by
The hire is the second time in as many months that Bird & Bird has recruited a partner from Linklaters to strengthen its continental practice. In September the firm announced it was hiring Link-laters’
Bird & Bird now has more than 100 lawyers in
Bird & Bird co-head of corporate Alexander Schroeder-Frerkes said: “We have a lot of IT clients in the telecoms sector and a number of our other core sectors but Joerg brings in a lot of banking and financial institutions’ IT and outsourcing work.”
Partners at rival firms said Linklaters had been focusing its European offices on corporate and finance during recent years.
One IT partner at a rival firm said: “Linklaters is not the only firm that is cutting back its non-transactional departments. The other magic circle firms are all doing it too.”