Recent weeks have seen no less than five asset finance partner moves announced, with Berwin Leighton Paisner, Ince & Co, Mayer Brown, and, most notably, Hogan Lovells all moving to strengthen their City practices. While the timing of the appointments is more down to coincidence than any single driver in the market, the moves illustrate the differing approaches to asset finance across large law firms.

For Hogan Lovells, the hire of high-profile Linklaters partner duo Robert Fugard and Simon Gwynne is a sign of the firm's desire to strengthen its practice outside the aviation market and build upon its international practice. Similarly, Mayer Brown's hire of former Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe European head Stuart McAlpine hands the firm its only London partner focusing purely on asset finance, with the appointment coming as part of a bid to leverage the firm's asset finance strength in Hong Kong, the US and France.

The contrast with the impact on Linklaters, then, is stark, as the departures effectively mark the firm's withdrawal from mainstream asset finance work in London. They leave the firm with no dedicated asset finance partners in the City, although banking partner Olga Petrovic will take responsibility for the practice. Petrovic says that it is not just the profitability of asset finance work that prompted Linklaters' decision to step back from the product line – although the sector is notoriously cyclical and less profitable than many areas of banking.