Two Irwin Mitchell corporate partners have left to join Osborne Clarke in the latest in a wave of exits from the firm.

Edward Persse and Paul Smith will both join Osborne Clarke’s London corporate practice over the next two months.

Persse has been a partner at Irwin Mitchell for 10 years and has developed and headed up the firm’s international strategy group. He also led Irwin Mitchell’s in-house programme and managed its London corporate department.

His experience covers domestic and international private capital, M&A and joint venture transactions. Persse joined Irwin Mitchell as a partner in 2006 from Baker & McKenzie.

Smith leaves Irwin Mitchell after first joining the firm as a trainee in 2005. His exit come less than six months after he was made up to partner as part of Irwin Mitchell’s largest promotions round in three years.

Smith specialises in cross border M&A deals, joint ventures and corporate advisory transactions. His clients include a SMEs and start-ups working in the real estate and technology sectors.

The departures come a month after Irwin Mitchell lost five real estate partners to Dentons. The team included the firm’s London real estate head Rob Thompson and was predominately made up of legacy SJ Berwin partners.

At the same time Irwin Mitchell’s London head of planning Martha Grekos also left to take up the role as head of planning at Howard Kennedy.

Irwin Mitchell has yet to announce who will lead its London real estate team. Currently, the firm’s national head of real estate Paul Firth has stepped in to fill the gap and is understood to be interviewing internal and external candidates for role.