Ince & Co's Monaco office is facing an uncertain future, amid a dispute over a deal said to have been agreed before the Gordon Dadds takeover to allow it to break away from the merged firm.

Gordon Dadds completed its acquisition of Ince's UK assets on 31 December last year, in a deal carried out via a pre-pack administration, but the details are still being thrashed out by administrators Quantuma.

The future of some of Ince's international offices is still to be resolved, with the firm's French bases in Paris, Marseille and Le Havre in talks to join Gide Loyrette Nouel.

Ince's Monaco office, however, operates separately to the three French bases, and one ex-Ince partner and another source with knowledge of the administration said that during the Gordon Dadds negotiations, a deal was struck to allow the Monaco office to remove itself from the takeover.

Quantuma is now looking into the validity of this deal to establish whether it is entitled to a share in the Monaco business for the purposes of the administration.

It is also yet to be decided if the office will continue as part of Ince Gordon Dadds, or whether it will now operate independently. Ince's other international bases have agreed network arrangements to continue trading as Ince & Co.

The Monaco base, which was launched in August 2011, practises English law as Ince & Co Monaco SARL. It is led by former Italy office head Ian Cranston, and focuses primarily on energy and shipping matters. Other partners in the office include superyachts partner Andrew Charlier and litigation partner Marco Crusafio.

Quantuma is in the process of settling Ince's balances with a view to paying its creditors, which include RBS and landlords Brookfield Properties and China Life.

Last week, Legal Week reported that administration had hit delays due to a dispute between Ince's UK and French branches over settling who owes what to the process, with as much as £2m contended.

Ince Monaco declined to comment.