Five senior Italian partners are quitting Clifford Chance (CC) along with 26 lawyers and eight employees in the culmination of a long-running row over the management of the magic circle firm’s Italian practice.

The five partners are Vittorio Grimaldi, the name partner of Clifford Chance’s Italian merger partner, Rome-based Francesco Novelli and Valerio Di Gravio, and Milan partners Roberto Cappelli and Alberto Dubini.