Legal Week‘s revelation on 23 January that Allen & Overy (A&O) has shaken up its private client department in a bid to raise its profitability has thrown the spotlight once more on the firm’s unique retention of an expensive private client team.

A&O stands alone within the magic circle – and, excluding Macfarlanes, among its top 20 competitors – in continuing to plough resources into a private client team, seemingly at odds with the transactional bent of the firm as a whole.