Clifford Chance (CC) is to see two international partners leave, with one Dubai partner moving in-house while the firm's Spanish office prepares for the departure of local senior partner Jaime De San Roman.

In Dubai, US securities partner Michael Dakin is to leave CC over the next few months to join Middle East-based holding company Future Group as its chief legal officer.

Dakin's switch to Future Group, which operates in business lines including outsourcing, comes only a few months after he moved to the Middle East from London to boost CC's local US law practice at partner level.

Dakin's departure comes as Dubai-based corporate finance partner Iain Hunter prepares to return to the London office after the summer, following a two-year secondment to the region aimed at winning new investment clients.

Dakin told Legal Week:  "Working in-house will be a whole new experience for me. I expect I will be working on a broader range of issues than in specialist private practice, which will be exciting because when I first started out I was very much a generalist."

Separately, Spanish senior partner De San Roman is to leave CC at the end of this month. The Madrid-based partner has been Spanish senior partner for two years and also heads the banking and finance practice. He previously served as co-managing partner between 2001 and 2007.

CC has yet to appoint a new head of its Spanish banking group but will not be replacing De San Roman as senior partner. Instead, local managing partner Ignacio Ojanguren will lead the practice on his own. CC has 21 partners and 125 associates across Madrid and Barcelona.