Italian independent Grimaldi e Associati has voted to dissolve at the end of this month, with approximately 100 lawyers and support staff set to lose their jobs.

The planned dissolution, which was voted through by partners at a meeting earlier this month, comes after corporate chief Roberto Cappelli left the firm last month alongside an 11-lawyer team to join Italian leader Gianni Origoni Grippo & Partners.

The move, which resulted in the firm changing its name to Gianni Origoni Grippo Cappelli & Partners, came as a huge blow to Grimaldi, which had been experiencing falling revenues. Cappelli headed the firm's corporate and M&A practice, as well as serving as deputy chairman of football club AS Roma.

The independent firm was set originally set up in 2002 through a split-off from Clifford Chance in the culmination of a long-running row over the management of the top UK firm's Italian practice.

The five partners who set up Grimaldi were name partner Vittorio Grimaldi, Rome-based Francesco Novelli and Valerio Di Gravio, and Milan partners Roberto Cappelli and Alberto Dubini, who defected alongside 26 lawyers.

With about 17 partners, Grimaldi was one of Italy's larger independent firms, having posted an estimated €27m (£22.8m) in turnover for the 2010 calendar year.