Three Berwin Leighton Paisner partners, including head of real estate finance Laurence Rogers, have resigned from the firm to join DLA Piper.

Rogers has left the firm alongside commercial real estate partner Richard Hopkinson-Woolley and corporate tax partner Neville Wright.

The three partners will all join DLA's real estate team.

Dann, the current projects and infrastructure head, will take over from the departing Matthew Kellett, who shocked the partnership by resigning last October.

Kellett agreed to remain at BLP until his successor was appointed.
Kellett's resignation sparked an independent review of the finance practice, conducted by former Clifford Chance managing partner Tony Williams, now at legal consultants Jomati.

One of the remits of the review, which has now concluded, was thought to have been to identify a successor to Kellett. However the list of candidates was diminished when restructuring and insolvency head Ben Larkin, one of those touted for the role within the firm, quit for Jones Day earlier this month.

Larkin's was the latest in a string of high-profile exits at the firm in recent months. Last year, corporate finance partner Michael Weir and finance partner Richard Todd defected to Jones Day and Mayer Brown respectively.

Larkin will now also be joined at Jones Day by BLP's banking and capital markets partner Paul Simcock, who will become the fourth partner the US firm has hired from the City firm in recent months.

The review of the finance department at BLP is expected to recommend a streamlining of the practice following a poor financial performance in 2012-12.

At the time the review kicked off, one BLP partner told Legal Week: "We had a bad year last year and are not where we were before – we need to distinguish ourselves from other firms, find our unique selling point and know that we are going to be strategically important to the firm."

DLA Piper's co-chief executive Sir Nigel Knowles said of the new hires: "The addition of this impressive team is a significant step in the implementation of the firm's strategic commitment to the Real Estate sector."