McDermott Will & Emery's London office has seen four partners and two senior lawyers leave within the last month from its tax and structured finance practices.

The City tax practice, historically one of the firm's strongest UK practice areas, has lost two partners, a counsel and a senior tax director, leaving it with one UK-qualified tax partner – London senior partner Peter Nias.

Partner Nicola Purcell has resigned from the partnership to pursue opportunities outside the law, while Alastair Wilson, a qualified barrister who joined the firm as a counsel in 2003 from PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) where he was a tax specialist, has also left. In addition, senior director of tax, Guy Madewell, is retiring from the firm. He joined McDermott in 2001 from PwC.

The latest departures come after it emerged last week that tax partner Stuart Sinclair had joined the London office of Bingham McCutchen.

Nias told Legal Week: "The tax practice at McDermott remains one of our key strengths and is a recognised brand of the firm. It will continue to be a major focus, both in London and throughout our offices in Europe and the US. We have been in discussions to recruit in London at partner level for some time to supplement the existing team."
In addition to Nias, the UK practice includes US partner and head of the international practice group David Ryder and four associates.

Separately, securitisation and structured finance partners Steven Black and Abesh Choudhury have also resigned from the partnership. It is still unclear what their next moves will be. Choudhury's departure comes a year after he joined the firm from the London office of US firm Dewey & LeBoeuf in May 2008. The departures leave McDermott with around 30 partners in the City.