Clyde & Co and Olswang are targeting lawyers from DJ Freeman's insurance and media teams, Legal Week can reveal.

Legal Week has established that a group of insurance partners from DJ Freeman have held preliminary discussions about a move to Clydes, while Olswang is currently in talks with some of its media partners.

In response, a senior source at DJ Freeman this week denied that members of the two teams were in talks to move to a rival firm or that it had any expectation that individual partners are to resign.

However, a source close to Clydes confirmed that "early stage" discussions have been held with some members of the insurance team. "The insurance team is of interest to Clyde & Co, but there is still a long way to go," the source added.

Any defections from the 15-partner team to a rival firm would be a major blow to DJ Freeman. Discussions with Olswang are understood to be focusing on some of its partners. The corporate and media specialist is expecting to make an announcement in a matter of days.

News of the talks comes after DJ Freeman was last week hit by the resignation of its core four-partner property finance team, which is to move to the London arm of DLA (see page 4).

In addition the firm last month saw its head of IP Alex Carter-Silk resign to go to Manches, while respected head of property litigation, Vivien King, announced her retirement from the firm.

The embattled City firm, which has seen falling partner profits, lawyer redundancies and a number of senior departures in the last two years, is expected to be left by the departures confirmed last week with 41 partners, against a 2001 tally of 58.