Dechert has strengthened its City offering with the hire of Ropes & Gray finance partner Monica Gogna, as Ropes continues to lose partners in London.

Gogna, who was a partner in Ropes' investment management and financial regulation team, was previously a partner at Pinsent Masons before joining Ropes in 2014 .

At Dechert, she will focus on advising financial institutions primarily in the asset management sector.

Her exit follows a spate of departures from Ropes, both in London and elsewhere.

Last month, Kirkland & Ellis recruited a five-partner investigations and government enforcement team from Ropes, including lawyers from four of the firm's offices in the US, UK and Asia. The team hire, which included Marcus Thompson in London, was closely followed by the departure of London investment funds partner Anand Damodaran for Kirkland, taking the Chicago firm's haul to six partners in a month.

Meanwhile, in June, Ropes London finance partners Mark Wesseldine and Fergus Wheeler quit for King & Spalding. A month before this, restructuring partner James Douglas left the firm for Linklaters.

Managing partner of Ropes Hong Kong office Paul Boltz also left the firm earlier this year, taking a team of three other partners with him to join US rival Gibson Dunn & Crutcher .

In February, former Ropes partner Maurice Allen joined DLA Piper as a legal consultant, while finance partner Chris McGarry joined White & Case in April.

Separately, Ropes confirmed earlier this year that about 100 lawyers and staff were set to leave, as it prepared to restructure its intellectual property practice and pull out of patent prosecution work.

Commenting on Gogna's hire, Peter Astleford, co-chair of Dechert's financial services group, said: "Monica's wealth of experience handling cross-border regulatory matters in the financial services sector will enhance Dechert's ability to serve its clients' growing needs."

In June, Ropes advised Intermediate Capital Group as the company was part of a consortium of investors involved in a $5.3bn (£4.1bn) buyout of Norwegian software company Visma. The deal was reportedly the biggest software buyout in Europe.

The firm also advised Pfizer on a $14bn (£10.6bn) deal that saw the pharmaceutical giant acquire cancer drugmaker Medivation.