Less than three months into 2003 and the legal world has already seen two UK/US tie-ups – between Jones Day and Gouldens and Faegre & Benson and Hobson Audley – with the prospect of Ashurst Morris Crisp and Fried Frank Harris Shriver & Jacobson joining forces also tantalisingly close.

But what of last year’s big Anglo-US tie-up – between Chicago giant Mayer Brown & Platt and Rowe & Maw?