Troubled shipping law firm Ince has suffered another blow with the news that global senior partner Julian Clark is leaving.

The London-based shipping specialist’s three-year contract ends in April and will not be renewed.

London-listed Ince told Law.com that “following his departure, the role of senior partner will be phased out”.

Clark joined Ince in September 2019 from his role as head of shipping at Hill Dickinson.

He is now heading to Norwegian shipping insurer Gard.

A spokesperson for Ince said: “Ince will have a managing partner, Jennette Newman, and a group CEO, Donald Brown.”

Clark has been contacted for comment.

The move comes at a difficult time for the law firm, which has seen a number of senior staff leave as it continues to delay publication of overdue financial accounts for the year ending 31 March 2022.

Its shares were suspended in January due to this issue.

A cyber-attack a year ago cost it almost £5m and, in July 2022, Ince said it was planning to raise around £7m by issuing new shares to avoid “financial difficulties”, causing the stock price to halve.

Chief executive Adrian Biles said he would be stepping down as part of the financing process and the company then took a £7m hit from selling subsidiary Arden Partners, which it had acquired in October 2021.

Biles, who was also managing partner, was later sacked over an alleged conflict of interest.

A settlement was reached with him and another former director, John Biles, its ex-head of finance.

All parties waived claims against each other as a result.

TradeWinds reported in January that the firm was losing Christian Dwyer, its global head of admiralty, plus senior partner James Drummond to Scandinavia’s largest law firm, Schjodt.

They were previously the highest profile departures from the firm.

Sources told TradeWinds both Schjodt and fellow Oslo-London firm Wikborg Rein expect to recruit more veterans from Ince.

Ince has struggled with defections and internal dissension since before its 2018 takeover by non-shipping London firm Gordon Dadds, which had gone public the year before.