Clyde & Co has expanded its Sydney team by taking five partners and at least 25 lawyers from Australian insurance boutique firm Lee & Lyons.

The team will join Clydes’ Sydney office in February 2016. The move will be led by David Lee and Lucinda Lyons, who founded Lee & Lyons in 2002. The other three partners joining are David Amentas, Michelle Dunne and Christopher Smith. They will be joined by around 25 lawyers from their former firm in early 2016.

Lee & Lyons currently has nine partners and 35 lawyers across five offices, but will cease to trade following the team move. It is not yet known where the other four partners and the rest of the lawyers will move to.

The 30-strong team will bring with them established practices in general liability and professional liability claims work, as well as financial lines insurance and directors’ and officers’ (D&O) insurance.

“Our clients have made it clear that this is what they want from us to serve their needs better and we are responding,” said Clyde & Co’s Australian managing partner John Edmond.

He added the team hire would allow Clyde & Co to offer its insurance clients a full service capability at ”appropriate” industry rates in Australia.

Commenting on the move, Lee said: “Our clients here and overseas have been telling us that national and international reach of a high and consistent quality is critical to their business and we believe that by joining Clyde & Co we will be fulfilling this requirement.”

The news is the latest expansion of Clydes in Australia, since it launched in Sydney and Perth in 2012.

In September 2013, it opened a Melbourne office and added infrastructure, transportation and international trade capabilities. In October 2014, the firm opened its fourth Australian office in Brisbane.

Clydes’ senior partner James Burns confirmed the importance of the Australian market. He said: “Australia is an increasingly important market for our clients and one in which we are seeing significant and rapid growth. We are committed to providing our clients with the leading insurance capability in Australia and the Asia Pacific region and this expansion is in line with that ambition.”

At the time of its Australia launch in 2012, the firm had four partners in the country. With the latest addition, it will have 19 partners and close to 100 lawyers with a 160 total staff by March 2016.