Lovells has closed its Frankfurt tax and TMT groups as the top 10 London firm continues to restructure its German practice.

Frankfurt TMT partner Claudius Dechamps quit the firm on 31 March.

He joins former Lovells partner Werner Waldeck who left Haar-mann Hemmelrath & Partner last September to launch his own firm with two partners.

The firm's only other Frankfurt-based IT/IP partner, Hartwig Graf von Westerholt, moved to Linklaters spin-off Schiedermair in January.

Lovells' three-lawyer Frankfurt tax capability is to shut with the departure of partner Joerg Siegels, who is expected to leave the firm at the end of the month.

The firm has relocated Frankfurt senior tax associate Werner Giselmeier to its Duesseldorf office, while another associate who was offered a transfer has quit to join a local practice.

Lovells will run its German tax practice from its Munich and Duesseldorf offices, which have five and six lawyers respectively in their tax groups.

Lovells German managing partner Michael Leistikow told Legal Week: "We are to concentrate tax work on those two centres of gravity, thereby improving efficiency and performance."

He added that TMT "did not properly work in Frankfurt in terms of client generation". The firm is now to focus its technology practice from Munich and Hamburg.

Leistikow said the firm had restructured its 90-lawyer Frankfurt office "to be well positioned for the future".

The ongoing shake-up in Lovells' national practice comes after the departure in February of four partners in Berlin.

In a separate move, German-qualified competition partner Thomas Jestaedt has quit to join US giant Jones Day.

The firm's Duesseldorf partner Martin Sura has replaced Brussels-based Jestaedt in the role.