Ince & Co has lost its third partner to specialist shipping and insurance boutique BDM Law following the niche firm’s launch in June this year.

Nick Burgess joins BDM as one of the firm’s three partners after heading leading Ince’s Japan team and co-heading its Russian and East Europe team. During his 21 years at Ince Burgess also spent time in Hong Kong and built up a number of clients throughout Asia.

BDM was launched earlier this year by shipping specialists Bob Deering and David McInnes, who are both former partners at Ince. Burgess is the last of the three name partners at BDM but was held on gardening leave for seven months.

Burgess said: “In my opinion BDM Law is likely to expand as other firms increasingly move away from the areas that we specialise in to look for what they perceive to be more profitable work. Our challenge is to manage the growth and not to expand too quickly.”

Ince has seen a number of partner exits in recent months including piracy litigator Stephen Askins who left to join Tatham Macinnes in April.

However, the biggest blow to Ince came when it emerged Singapore managing partner Richard Lovell is set to join Reed Smith. He will be joined by Incisive Law joint managing director Mohan Subbaraman.

Incisive Law has been in an alliance with Ince since March 2011. It is unknown whether the alliance will continue following Subbaraman’s departure.

Ince is also understood to be in the market for a merger, having approached a number of firms including Watson Farley & Williams (WFW). WFW managing partner Chris Lowe said he had “sat down” with Ince’s management to “listen to what they have to say” but Ince’s senior partner Jan Heuvels denied formal merger talks had taken place.

Ince has carried out two redundancy consultations over the last two years. The latest cuts led to six partners and 10 legal secretaries leaving the firm while in April 2014 the firm cut 10 fee-earners and six secretarial staff from its business.

Last year Ince’s turnover fell 8 per cent from £86.7m to £79.4m. During the 2013/14 financial year the firm also saw its revenue drop by 7 per cent from £93.2m.

The firm is set to move its London office from 1 St Katharine’s Way to Aldgate Tower. The move will see the firm substantially reduce its London space from 64,030sq ft to 35,000sq ft. Ince is currently paying £55.30 per sq ft and while it is unknown how much the firm is paying for its new office the move is expected to reduce costs by a minimum of £1.6m.