Insurance boutique Hextalls has lost a team of eight, including two partners, to Kennedys.

Insurance boutique Hextalls has lost a team of eight, including two partners, to Kennedys.

Personal injury specialists Joe McManus and Charles Martin will join the firm today along with a team of four solicitors and two secretaries. They will arrive with a number of key clients including AIG, Liberty and Travelers.

“These are clients which are the same as ours,” said Kennedys senior partner Nick Thomas. “This move brings our rivals into the fold and consolidates our contacts.”

Kennedys has been beefing up its ranks for more than a year, having made a number of strategic hires.

In December 2008 it launched a raid on DLA Piper’s Birmingham office taking professional indemnity (PI) head Eamon Mooney to lead its PI team in Birmingham. He was joined by partners Robert Welfare and Khalid Mahmood.