Gibson Dunn & Crutcher has hired its second corporate partner from Ashurst in as many months, with Nigel Stacey set to join the US firm in London.

Stacey, who has been a partner at Ashurst since 2000, is understood to have already resigned from Ashurst's partnership.

He advises UK and international corporates and investment banks on all aspects of corporate law and corporate finance, and led the team that was voted Restructuring Team of the Year 2011 at the British Legal Awards.

In 2012, he led a team advising Vedanta Resources in connection with Sesa Goa Limited's $10.3bn acquisition of Sterlite Industries and the proposed consolidation and simplification of the group structure.

The move to Gibson Dunn reunites Stacey with former Ashurst partner Jonathan Earle.

Earle, who had been a partner at Ashurst since 2008, became the latest in a string of exits from Ashurst's corporate practice when he moved last month.

His exit followed the departure of private equity partner Karan Dinamani who left the firm in March to join former Ashurst head of corporate Stephen Lloyd at Allen & Overy.

The moves came in the wake of a management reshuffle at Ashurst in October 2013 which saw former senior partner and private equity head Charlie Geffen lose out in a vote for the newly created chairman role to dispute resolution partner Ben Tidswell.

Following Lloyd's departure Ashurst appointed Simon Beddow as co-head of the firm's global corporate, commercial and competition practice, working alongside Sydney-based co-head Phil Breden.

Last year Gibson Dunn made a spate of lateral hires including Ali Nikpay, head of the cartel and criminal enforcement division at the Office of Fair Trading (OFT), to head up its City competition practice.

In July, the US firm also appointed Hogan Lovells' energy head for South East Asia Brad Roach, in a move to bolster the firm's partner headcount in the wake of it receiving a Qualifying Foreign Law Practice (QFLP) licence.