This blog isn’t really my opinion on Herbert Smith – I’m keeping my powder dry for a little longer on that one – but this week’s effective break-up of the City firm’s merger hopes and European alliance does illustrate a factor that has been hugely on display throughout this year. Amid a hectic 10 months in which we have seen a stream of international tie-ups across the globe, many of the far-reaching decisions taken by law firms have been substantively shaped by a single consideration: who gets to be the boss afterwards.
Ashurst and Blake Dawson; the continued expansion of the Norton Rose Group; Mallesons/King & Wood; and the break-up of Herbert Smith’s alliance with Gleiss Lutz and Stibbe – what they all have in common is that these events happened partly because individual partnerships had ambitions of remaining a dominant party in a global consolidation play.
