Only a few months after Hogan Lovells made its move into Boston through its acquisition of Collora, four partners formerly affiliated with that boutique have left the global legal giant to join local litigation shop Todd & Weld.

Paul Cirel, Daniel Cloherty, Ingrid Martin and Victoria Steinberg made up about one-sixth of Collora, a 25-lawyer firm that was officially absorbed into Hogan Lovells on Sept. 1. But in late December, all four lawyers tended their resignations from Hogan Lovells' partnership and moved to Todd & Weld as partners.

The group did not immediately return requests for comment about their exit, as Todd & Weld's sole office in Boston was closed Thursday due to a blizzard affecting much of the northeast. Hogan Lovells, however, issued a statement addressing the departures.

“We wish these lawyers well in their future endeavors,” a Hogan Lovells spokeswoman said. “Our plans to grow our Boston office continue in full force and we are excited to offer expanded services to clients in the Boston market.”

The deal with Collora marked Hogan Lovells' entry into a city that in recent months has been a hotbed of activity for lateral hiring and office openings by Big Law. In June, the same month that Hogan Lovells announced its acquisition of Collora, Kirkland & Ellis opened an office in Boston's Back Bay neighborhood after reeling in Ropes & Gray private equity partner Jason Serlenga.

Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice, now known as Womble Bond Dickinson, set up shop in Boston in September through its addition of a trio of intellectual property partners from McCarter & English. In December, Sidley Austin landed Latham & Watkins private equity partners William Schwab and Alexander Temel in Boston, while DLA Piper bolstered its long-standing office in the city through its addition of former Nutter McClennen & Fish private equity co-chairman Adam Ghander.

Hogan Lovells' Boston base was predicated on expanding the firm's life sciences and health care practices, as well as investigations and commercial litigation work. And since going live in September, Hogan Lovells has quickly found itself involved in some prominent local matters, including a major political scandal.

In mid-December, the Massachusetts Senate Ethics Committee agreed to hire Hogan Lovells to serve as a special investigator for an inquiry into whether former state Senate President Stanley Rosenberg violated rules in connection with sexual misconduct allegations against his husband, Bryon Hefner. The allegations against Hefner arose following a November report by the Boston Globe that detailed accusations from four men claiming that he sexually assaulted or harassed them, and then bragged that he had influence within the state Senate.

Hogan Lovells partners Anthony Fuller, Jody Newman and Natashia Tidwell have been tapped to take the lead on the probe of Rosenberg. Fuller, a former federal prosecutor in Massachusetts, joined Hogan Lovells from Collora, as did Newman and Tidwell. The costs related to that investigation are reportedly not yet public.

“Getting to the truth of this matter is our highest priority,” Fuller said in a late December statement. “Hogan Lovells is committed to conducting a full, fair and independent investigation and we encourage any witnesses and potential victims to contact us as soon as possible.”

Tidwell, another former federal prosecutor and a onetime police officer in Cambridge, Massachusetts, has also been leading an independent monitoring team overseeing a consent agreement between the U.S. Department of Justice and the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson, Missouri, following the 2014 shooting death of Michael Brown.

The Associated Press reported in November that Tidwell had received $21,000 for her work in the matter since July 2017.