A top antitrust partner at Howrey is leaving the law firm, adding to the growing number of top lawyers who have quit the firm in recent months.

Trevor Soames, who was the managing partner of Howrey's Brussels office and served as co-head of the firm's global antitrust practice, has handed over his papers and is already in talks with other law firms about building a market-leading antitrust practice again in Brussels. He counts United Airlines and Microsoft among his clients.

Howrey has replaced Soames with competition partner Stephen Mavroghenis.

Meanwhile, according to Above the Law and the Am Law Daily, Howrey will soon be closing down its Salt Lake City office. The office is set to close by Feb. 15.

It isn't clear how Howrey is going to deal with the exodus of its top lawyers and rainmakers.

Last week, intellectual property (IP) expert Henry Bunsow, who served as vice-chairman at Howrey, left the firm to join Dewey & LeBoeuf. Bunsow has been lead trial counsel in more than 40 patent jury trials and most recently he represented Acushnet, which produces Titleist-brand golf products, in a patent infringement case which alleged that the Titleist Pro V1 golf ball infringed on four patents owned by golf-equipment manufacturer Callaway.

Joining Bunsow at Dewey will be former Howrey IP partners Denise De Mory and Brian Smith.

Howrey is already struggling with its European intellectual property (IP) practice following the departure of its London-based managing partner Mark Hodgson, who has joined Field Fisher Waterhouse.

Recently, Howrey's top lawyers in Germany have also left the firm in favor of Field Fisher. They are Howrey IP partners Thomas Adam and Jochen Herr in Munich and Duesseldorf-based Christoph Lenz. Joachim Feldges, formerly managing partner of Howrey's Munich and Dusseldorf offices, will be heading Field Fisher's German offices.

Last year, Marjan Noor, Paul Inman and Richard Willoughby left Howrey to join Simmons & Simmons, Wragge & Co and Rouse Legal respectively.

Three months back Howrey's Europe IP head Willem Hoyng and a dozen other partners had left the firm to start their own boutique firm Hoyng Monegier, citing client conflicts and poor work-flow with the US side of the firm.

The team breaking away from the firm included European IP head Benoit Strowel, Amsterdam managing partner Bart van den Broek, Brussels IP head Carl de Meyer and Amsterdam partner Joris van Manen.

In recent months, Howrey also witnessed the exit of three top New York-based lawyers. They are Gary Bendinger, the co-chair of the firm's litigation practice, and litigation partners Gregory Ballard and Kevin Burke. They have all joined Sidley Austin.

There is also speculation that Bill Rooklidge, who was the co-chair of the IP practice and worked out of Irvine, is leaving Howrey.

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