Chief executive partner Michael Rose said: "Before we entered our alliance with Linklaters, we made the conscious decision to exit our insurance practice in Asia -- the departure of a number of partners to Clyde & Co is the natural outworking of that. We have taken the opportunity to strategically shift our insurance practice to align more closely with Linklaters' global practice, which focuses on insurance sector corporates and high-end corporate and litigation work."
The news follows an expansive year for Clydes which has seen the firm boost its total office count to 29, after merging with Canada's Nicholl Paskell-Mede in June 2011 and Barlow Lyde & Gilbert in November last year.
A raft of U.K. firms have opened in Australia in recent years, including Norton Rose, Clifford Chance and Allen & Overy, while Herbert Smith last week confirmed that it is set to merge with Freehills as of Oct. 1.
