You can almost hear the laughter pealing around Kempson House. Four years after Allen & Overy (A&O) inflicted a damaging raid on Norton Rose’s acquisition finance team, A&O just cannot hold on to LBO partners.
With Stephen Gillespie now heading to Kirkland & Ellis, the suspicion must be that the arrival of the four-partner Norton Rose team in 2002 ultimately came at the price of more than the quartet’s drawings. While undoubtedly a successful team for A&O, the upheaval of introducing such a tightly-knit group appears to have taken its toll on the magic circle firm’s cohesion.
