The Gordon Dadds Group said it will establish a new team in Monaco, following the announcement that HFW has hired legacy Ince & Co's seven-strong team in the principality.

HFW's new team includes former Ince partners Ian Cranston, Andrew Charlier and Marco Crusafio, along with two legal directors, an associate, and a trainee.

In a counter-move, the Gordon Dadds Group said it will set up a fresh presence in the region.

In a statement on the London Stock Exchange on Friday, the Gordon Dadds Group confirmed the departure of Ince's present Monaco team, which it said followed the completion of a review process.

In the announcement, the firm said it had "concluded that the financial performance of its representation in Monaco can be improved by bringing in a new team".

The two announcements follow reports earlier this year that Ince's Monaco office was embroiled in a dispute over a deal said to have been agreed before the Gordon Dadds takeover, which would allow it to break away from the merged firm.

The Monaco base, which was launched in August 2011, practises English law as Ince & Co Monaco SARL.

Cranston was the former Monaco office head and Charlier was global head of the firm's yachts group. Crusafio was promoted to the partnership by Ince in October last year.

Commenting on the establishment of a Monaco office, Paul Dean, head of shipping at HFW, said in a statement: "We've been interested in the Monaco market for quite some time, but we were only ever going to make a move if we could bring them on board – they're the clear market leaders and we wouldn't settle for anything less."