Norton Rose’s top brass is in talks over the expected departure of insurance chief Francis Mackie, despite the highly-rated litigator apparently quitting the UK firm for the City arm of New York’s LeBoeuf Lamb Greene & MacRae.

Mackie, who heads up Norton Rose’s respected insurance litigation team and non-contentious insurance group, is regarded as one of the firm’s leading lawyers, having acting for clients such as Axa Global and Swiss Re.