Travers Smith has been replaced by Signature Litigation on a €40m (£29m) professional negligence claim brought against Fried Frank Harris Shriver & Jacobson, it has emerged.

A former client of the US firm, Fortelus Capital Management, alleges Fried Frank breached its duty over advice provided on the enforcement of a €20m commercial loan in Paris in 2009. It filed the claim at the High Court in April 2014.

Fortelus dropped Travers Smith for Signature partners Abdul Jiwaji and Dan Spendlove earlier this year.

Spendlove was previously a senior associate at Travers, leaving for Signature in August 2013. He worked on the Fortelus case while at his former firm.

The case will be head in the commercial court over five weeks from 13 June 2016.

Fried Frank has instructed Clyde & Co partners Fergal Cathie and Andrew Blair to defend the claim, which stems from work done out of its Paris office by a team led by David Chijner, who has since moved to DLA Piper. The work included specialist French law corporate insolvency and restructuring advice.

Fortelus is claiming to have suffered substantial loss and damage.

The claim arises from a group of European companies headquartered in Paris which collapsed leaving Fortelus with losses in excess of €40m. Fortelus is seeking to recover damages in respect of those losses from Fried Frank on the basis that the advice the firm provided was negligent.

Other firms to face professional negligence disputes in the last two years include: Clifford Chance, which settled the high-profile Excalibur dispute for an undisclosed sum earlier this month; Withers, which was ordered to pay former client Wellesley Partners £1.6m in damages in November following an unsuccessful appeal; Gateley, which is set to fight a multimillion-pound claim by property developer client EPG in April 2017; Nabarro, which agreed to pay £10m to settle a £130m claim by a client last year; and Mishcon de Reya, which is currently being sued by ex-QPR chairman Antonio Caliendo.

Signature picked up another major mandate earlier this year when the RBS Shareholder Action Group left its previous counsel Fladgate after it failed to get funding. Signature partner Graham Huntley is now representing the shareholder group as part of the £4bn battle against the Royal Bank of Scotland.

The legal line-up:

For the claimant, Fortelus

4 New Square’s Roger Stewart QC, Graham Chapman QC and Pippa Manby, instructed by Signature Litigation partners Abdul Jiwaji and Dan Spendlove

For the defendant, Fried Frank

Fountain Court’s Patricia Robertson QC and Rosalind Phelps, instructed by Clyde & Co partners Fergal Cathie and Andrew Blair