Reed Smith is to lose 15 lawyers in Hong Kong as part of a 50-strong team leaving to join a trio of ex-former partners at newly formed firm Howse Williams Bowers (HWB).

The team, which includes 35 members support staff, will reunite with Reed Smith's former co-head of professional indemnity Chris Howse, insurance litigation partner Kevin Bowers and corporate partner Chris Williams, who all quit in December to form HWB.

The new firm, which will offer maritime law, dispute resolution and corporate and commercial advice, has five partners in total, with Reed Smith lawyers David Kan and Bernard Murphy, who also left in December, becoming partners.

All five partners at the new firm and many of the other staff initially worked in legacy Richards Butler's Hong Kong office before the merger with Reed Smith in 2008.

The departures will leave the US firm with 27 partners in Hong Kong, of which 11 focus on dispute resolution.

News of the departures comes after Reed Smith boosted its London office in December, hiring SJ Berwin partner Perry Yam to launch a private equity practice and Berwin Leighton Paisner's structured finance head Tamara Box.

Yam, who made partner at SJ Berwin in 2001, stood unsuccessfully for managing partner at the firm, losing out to Rob Day in October 2010.