Charles Russell has sold its three-partner Cambridge office to Penningtons, which is also launching a new base in Guildford this week.

The Cambridge office will join Penningtons as of today (19 March), with all three of Charles Russell's local partners moving to the firm – employment partners Tim Tyndall and Hilary Aldred and corporate partner James Stephen.

Penningtons is also opening a Guildford office later this week (21 March), with five partners from its Surrey corporate, employment and commercial property teams relocating to the new base.

The news comes after Charles Russell closed its Oxford office in January this year, with the firm now operating three UK offices in London, Guildford and Cheltenham. The firm relocated Oxford partners William Axtell and Mark Howard back to London in light of the office closure.

There have been no redundancies as a result of either the Cambridge office sale or Oxford closure.

A Charles Russell spokesperson said: "Our strategy, 'Focused growth on strong foundations', was developed in 2010. As the title suggests it is a strategy for growth through focusing on a number of market sectors and our other areas of excellence both in the UK and, of increasing importance, internationally.

"We also embarked on a number of change management initiatives to enhance the profitability and efficiency of the firm – some of which has already been widely reported. One element of this strategic focus was the decision taken in 2011 to close two of our regional UK offices in Oxford and Cambridge, to enable us to invest elsewhere."

The acquisition takes Penningtons' total number of UK offices to five, covering London, Basingstoke, Surrey, Guildford and Cambridge.

Last year Charles Russell also closed its second London office, which was based in the West End and was used for back office functions and meetings. All staff were relocated to the firm's current London headquarters in Fleet Street.