Kennedys departures to insurance rival Plexus Law have now hit 27 in recent months, two years after the duo held merger talks.

A Kennedys team comprising seven partners, 11 associates, three trainees, a consultant and five support staff have either already left or are this month due to leave their posts at Kennedys to join Plexus.

The two firms explored a tie-up in 2017.

The departing Kennedys partners include: disputes specialists Andrew Caplan, Rob Wotherspoon and Thom Lumley, liabilities partner Ron Ruston, construction partner Simon Combe, and finance partners Andrew Crocombe and Sarah Cornish.

Cornish now heads up Plexus's financial lines practice. 

Plexus has also taken on two Kennedys senior associates, Kate Prestidge and Angela Hanmore, as partners.

The exits are spread across Kennedys' two regional offices in Taunton and Chelmsford, with all movers joining Plexus's newly established regional offices in the same areas. Its Chelmsford office opened on May 13, followed by the Taunton office on June 3.

In a statement to Legal Week, a Kennedys spokesperson said: "A small number of lawyers have decided to leave our partnership. As with any global partnership, departures of this nature are not unusual, and they leave with our thanks and best wishes for their new direction.

"As always, our focus remains on our clients, both domestically and around the world, and  we are fully equipped to continue to meet our clients' needs in light of these departures."

The spate of defections began with the departures of three associates and two solicitors in April, followed by four associates and a solicitor in May and three partners and an associate in June.

Caplan, Lumley, Ruston and Wotherspoon are set to join Plexus this month. 

Plexus's mass hire follows the December appointment of new CEO Fiona Scott, who for four years sat on Kennedy's board as global finance director.

Founded in 2005, Plexus earlier this year secured £15 million in private equity investment from Origin Equity, which Scott told Legal Week is being used to fund Plexus's growth strategy and to overhaul its IT systems.  

Plexus has had an eventful few years following the collapse of parent company Parabis in 2015. As part of the breakup of Parabis, Plexus was sold to a consortium of investors led by Parabis founders Andrew McDougall and Tim Roberts in 2015, following unsuccessful talks over an acquisition by insurance rival Keoghs.

Kennedys departures in full:

Chelmsford office

Partners: Andrew Caplan, Thom Lumley, Ron Ruston

Associates: Martin Taylor, Kerry Hawthorne-White, Mitchell Bennett, Claire Attridge, Jenna Gosling, Nikita Mallon

Taunton office 

Partners: Sarah Cornish, Andrew Crocombe, Simon Combe, Rob Wotherspoon

Associates: Laura Mellstrom, Helen Sanders

Consultant: Angela Horne