Former Freehills Singapore head John Dick has become the second partner to leave the firm's regional base since September.

Dick, who specialises in South East Asian corporate energy and resources work, and who helped establish Freehills' Singapore office in 2000, is set to exit from the firm early December to establish a Singapore base for another international firm.

Having worked in South East Asia since 1989, Dick was also previously involved in launching Freehills' presence in Vietnam.

Another partner to depart from the firm in Singapore in recent months was legacy Freehills energy partner Geoffrey Grice, who took a consultant role at Duane Morris & Selvam.

The firm, which was among the first group of legal outfits to be awarded a Qualifying Foreign Law Practice (QFLP) or local licence in Singapore, currently has 12 partners at its regional base according to its website.

Herbert Smith and Freehills combined their Singapore offices last year following the full equity merger between the two legacy firms which took effect on 1 October 2012.

Some 22 lawyers and support staff working on the Freehills side moved from their base at 39 Robinson Road just 1km to 50 Raffles Place, where Herbert Smith was located.

Since the merger, there have been a string of exits at both partner and associate level and from both legacy firms, reportedly due to a mix of reasons. 

On the Freehills side, exits by lawyers include senior associate Simon Barrell who moved to Norton Rose Fulbright as a senior associate in Shanghai and two lawyers who left the firm for in-house roles.

These included special counsel Alex Grice, who took a senior role at BT's legal group in Singapore, and senior associate Ben Robertson who joined MasterCard as senior regional counsel for South East Asia.

On the Freehills side, Herbert Smith energy partner Michelle Chen joined US outfit Jones Day in November last year, and disputes lawyers Rob Palmer and Chris Bailey joined Ashurst as partners in Singapore and Tokyo respectively in January. Consultant and Indonesia specialist Charles Ball joined Reed Smith in September.

However, the firm has also added staff to the office since the merger, with Nicola Yeomans relocating to Singapore from Freehills in Sydney and banking and finance partner Rod Howell joining the firm from Allens in February.

In a statement, HSF confirmed the recent partner departures but declined to say how many associates had left in the last 12 months.

A spokesperson said the firm had no plans to downsize in Singapore. 

"South East Asia is an important region for the firm in the context of our strategy to become the leading firm in the Asia Pacific.

"It is only a little over a year since we merged and there are inevitably going to be movements of people around the network – we have had a number of partner arrivals as well as departures. Our Singapore office is our regional hub and of fundamental importance to our plans.

"It continues to be successful and we have exciting investment plans for the office and the region."