Dentons' former chief executive Howard Morris has resigned from the firm after 22 years as a partner.

Morris recently returned to London from New York, where he spent the past two years as the firm's global integration and client development partner.

It is understood Dentons partners were informed of his decision to leave the firm last week. His future plans are not known.

In a statement, Dentons confirmed Morris had left the firm: "Howard joined legacy firm Denton Hall in 1991 and has since held many prominent positions, including chief executive. We thank him for his outstanding contribution to the firm and wish him well for his future endeavours."

Originally a banking and finance lawyer with a practice focus on corporate recovery and insolvency, Morris headed legacy Denton Wilde Sapte from December 2004, when he replaced Virginia Glastonbury in the role of chief executive.

Following his re-appointment in an uncontested election in 2007, Morris helped drive the merger of Denton Wilde Sapte and Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal, and initially shared the role of chief executive at merged firm SNR Denton with current CEO Elliott Portnoy.

In 2011 Morris was transferred to New York and made responsible for knitting together SNR Denton's offices and selling the merged firm to clients.

At the time, Dentons said Morris stepped down ahead of schedule because the integration of the two firms had been smoother than expected.