Despite a reputation as one of Wall Street’s most established firms, the combination of innate conservatism and the legacy of a tricky patch in the early 1990s had led many to discount Milbank Tweed Hadley & McCloy as a serious international challenger.

Even the eye-catching hire of Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer’s Tim Emmerson in 2003 left many rivals more bemused than impressed. Yet 2004 was to show the firm comprehensively confounding expectations on the international stage.