SNR Denton is set to lose advocacy chief and former deputy chairman Rory McAlpine to the London arm of Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom, it has emerged.

McAlpine was part of the small group of senior partners from the legacy Denton Wilde Sapte that negotiated the firm's transatlantic merger with US firm Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal, which went live in September last year.

The high-profile litigator had been a partner at the City law firm since 1990, when he left a career with the Bar to become a dispute resolution solicitor and set up Dentons' advocacy unit.

He was appointed deputy chairman in 2007, a role in which he oversaw day-to-day management for Dentons. The role was phased out in 2009 when City-based corporate partner Martin Kitchen took over the chairman position from Dubai energy partner James Dallas.

McAlpine was a longstanding member of legacy Dentons' management team, but had recently resigned from all of his board duties at the newly-merged firm.

The transatlantic firm is now headed by Washington DC-based global chief executive Elliott Portnoy, following the relocation of former UK-based co-chief Howard Morris to New York to oversee the combined firm's integration strategy, a move announced in February this year.

Skadden currently has five UK-based litigation partners and three counsel. The New York-based law firm most recently hired former Serious Fraud Office prosecutor Matthew Cowie as counsel for its London corporate investigations practice last summer, while the latest lateral partner addition was David Kavanagh, who joined from O'Melveny & Myers in 2009 and now heads up the City litigation and arbitration practice.

Skadden declined to comment.