“It’s one engagement letter, one lead partner and one bill.” So says managing partner Simon Davies of the relationship Linklaters enjoys with its alliance partners in South Africa and Australia, Webber Wentzel and Allens respectively.
Over the last 20 years or so, the legal market has become used to independent firms like Slaughter and May and Macfarlanes extolling the virtues of working with other like-minded top-quality international practices to undertake cross-border work. But it is much more unusual for the head of a global giant like Linklaters to express such sentiments, given the number of mergers the leading international firms have forged to create ‘one-stop shops’ for their clients. And the ambition of such unions seems to grow with each announced deal.
