Ernst & Young's legal and tax arm in Italy has been hit by the departure of its chairman, Paolo Tanoni, and about 15 lawyers.

Corporate partner Tanoni is considering forming a stand-alone firm and believes 10-15 lawyers will join him. He said he decided to leave because of insufficient investment by the global auditing giant in its 95-lawyer Italian legal arm.

Tanoni told Legal Week: "I leave on good terms and have many friends at Ernst & Young, but they simply do not want to invest enough in the legal practice."

The move is another setback for the once-grand legal ambitions of the big four accountancy firms, which have suffered a wave of departures and regulatory clampdowns following the post-Enron shake-up of auditor standards.

However, the managing partner of Ernst & Young's Italian legal arm, Francesco Marotta, said the practice, which is a separate legal entity from Ernst & Young, had no plans to pull the plug on the association.