Morgan Lewis has hired a 16-person team from Bingham McCutchen in Tokyo, a month after signing up the majority of the Boston-headquartered firm's lawyers, partners and support staff.

However, Legal Week understands some 23 partners in the Bingham Tokyo office have chosen not to move to Morgan Lewis, despite Bingham's impending dissolution.

Office managing partner Hideyuki Sakai could not be reached to comment on the likely destination of the team, which also includes more than 40 other lawyers.

The five-partner team joining Morgan Lewis comprises investment management and financial regulatory lawyers Christopher Wells and Tomoko Fuminaga, transactional lawyers Lisa Valentovish and Tsugumichi Watanabe and intellectual property partner Chris Mizumoto.

A further five lawyers and six staff will join Morgan Lewis' existing 29-strong Tokyo office, which has a long-standing joint enterprise with TMI Associates, the fifth largest law firm in Japan.

Morgan Lewis Chair Jami McKeon welcomed the Tokyo group, citing the team of lawyers' close ties with US-based Morgan Lewis partners focused on Japan.

Last month, Morgan Lewis ended months of speculation surrounding a merger with Bingham when it voted to admit 226 partners, later hiring a further 525 lawyers, legal professionals and staff from the Boston firm, which is now set to dissolve.

New bases for Morgan Lewis include Santa Monica and Hartford, Connecticut, while Bingham's Hong Kong office is being transitioned to Morgan Lewis after the Philadelphia receives approval from the state's Law Society.

Prior to its acquisition by Morgan Lewis, Bingham had a torrid 18 months after seeing revenue fall by 12.6% to $762m (£456m) in 2013, a general loss of confidence in the firm's strategic direction in sections of the partnership, high-profile partner exits, and cuts to junior lawyer numbers.