Shearman & Sterling global private equity head Mark Soundy has left the firm, along with finance partner Arnaud Fromion in Paris.

The US firm confirmed that Soundy resigned last week. His next move is not yet known.

He has been a partner in the firm's M&A group since 2013, when he joined from Weil Gotshal & Manges. His practice focuses on UK and international M&A work, particularly private equity and complex restructuring work.

Meanwhile, Fromion has been a partner in Shearman's Paris office since 2011 after spending six years as a partner at Linklaters. It is understood that he is leaving to join Goodwin Procter in the French capital. He is expected to bring around two associates with him, but the details are not yet confirmed.

The departures follow Shearman's recent partnership restructuring. Earlier this month, it internally announced plans to introduce a second non-equity tier to the partnership.

In a firm-wide email, first published by Above the Law on 23 September, Shearman said it would "consolidate" its practice groups "to create a more efficient practice group and management structure". It added details about the new practice structure will be announced "in due course".

It is understood that the new tier is only applicable for associates being promoted to salaried partners and that no equity or fixed-share partners can be demoted to this rank. Instead, the firm is looking at shifting some equity partners to the fixed-share level.

However, the requirement for a supermajority of 75% of equity partners to approve a partner's removal from the equity partnership remains intact, Legal Week understands. In the past, this has thwarted Shearman's leaders attempts to trim the ranks of unproductive partners.

The 839-lawyer firm had 162 equity partners and 26 fixed-share partners last year.

In the past, Shearman's leaders had attempted to trim the ranks of unproductive partners but were hamstrung by the partnership agreement, which requires a supermajority of 75% of equity partners to approve a partner's removal from the equity partnership.

Meanwhile, the firm has continued to grow its younger tier of partners. It has promoted 25 partners within the past two years, many to fixed-share status.

Partners have grown frustrated at the firm's stalled growth. After two strong years in 2013 and 2014, average profits per equity partner fell nearly 4% in 2015, to $1.8m, while gross revenues grew by slightly less than 2% last year, to $860.5m.