Ashurst real estate partner Alex Cunliffe has left the firm to take up an in-house role at engineering company Bechtel.

Cunliffe, a member of Ashurst's non-contentious construction team in London becomes the 27th partner to leave the firm since May 2010.

The move comes after the head of non-contentious construction Marc Hanson announced his departure to real estate rival Berwin Leighton Paisner.

The City firm has seen spate of departures from its real estate team in recent months. In addition to Hanson, former London real estate head Simon Cookson has joined DLA Piper while head of European real estate David Evans and fellow partner Samantha Lake Coghlan are leaving for Goodwin Procter's London base.

Separately, AXA Real Estate has appointed Sarah Leroy – who joined the company in 2003 – as global head of legal.

In her new role, which will see her head a 14-strong legal team, Leroy will be in charge of legal issues relating to the management of real estate assets and commercial real estate loans across multiple jurisdictions.

Over the last eight years Leroy has held multiple roles including French head of legal affairs for corporate finance and legal head for clients, products and contracts.

CFO, COO and Company Secretary Arnaud Prudhomme said: "[Leroy's] sound experience and understanding of the requirements of the property markets across jurisdictions will be invaluable to providing us with the strong and coherent legal and compliance support to ensure our clients' needs are fulfilled to the highest standard and to operate on a global scale."