Clyde & Co loses four partners in four weeks

Four partners have left Clyde & Co in the past four weeks. Sheila Simison and Yvonne Jefferies left the firm to join insurance specialist Barlow Lyde & Gilbert last month, and tax partner Colin Master is due to leave at the end of this month.

Master is joining City bank Coutts & Co as head of trusts and estate planning. He said his move was "not through any dissatisfaction with Clyde & Co", but because Coutts had made him "the proverbial offer you cannot refuse".

"I am planning to maintain quite close links with the firm," he said.

As The Lawyer reported last week, corporate partner Patrick Heffernan left to join Mishcon de Reya's corporate department last month.

Senior partner Michael Payton said the departures were not significant. "We are a large partnership and inevitably people come and go. It is just part of life's rich tapestry," he said.

The firm also appointed three of its lawyers to the partnership last week: Bertrand Courtois, a specialist in shipping and transport litigation and international maritime law, who is based in the firm's Paris office; Dominic Lee, a specialist in shipping, international trade and insurance, who is based in Hong Kong; and Richard Barnett, a specialist in sale of goods and shipping, who is based in London.