Addleshaw Goddard’s drive to retain Theodore Goddard’s (TG) corporate client base has received a blow with the defection of trophy client Signet Group to Herbert Smith.

The Ftse 250 company appointed Herbert Smith as its principal adviser earlier this month.
Signet is understood to have been unsettled by the rash of senior defections from TG’s corporate department that followed the breakdown of its merger talks with Salans Hertzfeld & Heilbronn in September 2001.