Ashurst Morris Crisp’s impending merger with New York’s Fried Frank Harris Shriver & Jacobson is being delayed by 11th-hour talks about the structure of the combined practice and regulatory hurdles, Legal Week has learned.

Current proposals to merge the two firms under the name Ashurst Fried Frank have been delayed by a management drive to combine the two practices as separate US and UK registered LLPs, which Ashursts lawyers concede has caused taxation issues.