Ashurst has seen the departure of four more partners, including London banking heavyweight Nigel Ward and former Hong Kong managing partner Lina Lee.

Ward, the firm’s former head of banking and capital markets, is leaving to join Paul Hastings two weeks after the U.S. firm picked up a trio of finance partners from Ashurst. He has been an Ashurst partner since 1992, and has taken roles on major deals, including advising Lehman Brothers in 2006 as lenders to an agreement to invest in Firth Rixson alongside the Carlyle Group, as well as the £2 billion ($2.65 billion) sale of Abbey’s train leasing arm Porterbrook to a Deutsche Bank-led consortium in 2008. He also advised on the £300 million ($397.26 million) sale of Dr. Martens to Permira in 2013, leading the firm’s team acting for the lending banks.