Irell & Manella is abandoning most of its transactional practices in an effort to focus solely on high-value litigation work, in a move that's already led to the departure of three partners this week.

Michael Kaplan and Gregory Klein departed from the Los Angeles-based Am Law 200 law firm this week after learning that it wasn't going to support growing their mergers and acquisitions practice. They joined Simpson Thacher & Bartlett. A third lawyer, Harry Mittleman, is bringing his commercial litigation practice to Hueston Hennigan.

The departures leave Irell with 69 lawyers spread across two offices, as well as 14 partners emeritus who don't all practice full-time, a firm spokeswoman said. Irell's head count has been in steady decline since at least 2009, when it had 199 lawyers.