Shearman & Sterling’s respected German arm is facing its third partner defection in recent months, after Frankfurt-based corporate partner Bernhard Gemmel announced this week that he had quit the US firm.

Gemmel, who joined the New York firm’s Frankfurt office in 1996 and became a partner in 2001, is understood to have left the firm two weeks ago, after sending out an internal e-mail to his colleagues informing them of his departure.