Herbert Smith corporate insurance partners Adam Levitt and Hammad Akhtar have quit to join City rival Ashurst.

Levitt and Akhtar handed in their notice last month, leaving Herbert Smith with one corporate insurance partner in London, Geoffrey Maddock.

The appointment is a rare example of transactional partners moving between major City firms and will be regarded as a boost for Ashurst's profile in the sector. Herbert Smith has traditionally been one of the City's leading corporate insurance advisers and Maddock is established as one of the top lawyers in the field.

The departing Levitt has advised on a number of high-profile mandates in recent years including acting for Bradford & Bingley (B&B) on its £40bn nationalisation in 2008. Other clients include Pension Insurance Corporation and JP Morgan. He joined Herbert Smith as a partner in 2001 from Slaughter and May.

Akhtar was made up to partner at Herbert Smith in 2010. He has previously acted for clients including Swiss Re, B&B and Bank of Ireland. The hires take the number of partners in Ashurst's London insurance practice to six.

Ashurst co-head of the financial institutions group James Perry said: "The level of activity in the sector is set to continue, driven in part by the need to reduce balance sheets and the on-going development of the regulatory regime. Adam and Hammad will play a key role in extending and increasing the resource of our corporate offering to clients in the sector. In particular their expertise in the life assurance sector will be a great addition to the group."

The news comes after Herbert Smith this week announced a 51-strong round of redundancies, with many of the job losses expected in the firm's City corporate practice.
Lawyers in the firm's City corporate team look set to bear the brunt of the proposed cuts, with up to 23 fee-earners at risk of redundancy across the team's associate and of counsel ranks, as well as three professional support lawyers.

The fee earner figure equates to around 9% of the London corporate team.

In addition, a further five fee-earner positions are at risk in the firm's real estate practice alongside one professional support lawyer. Up to 19 personal assistant roles are also at risk of redundancy.

The firm said it hopes to achieve as many of these reductions through voluntary redundancies as possible.