We reported on this yesterday but thought readers might be interested in these reports as well
The Australian
Mallesons law firm abandons merger with British major
Chris Merritt, Legal affairs editor | December 10, 2008
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/business/story/0,28124,24777257-643,00.html
MALLESONS Stephen Jaques to abandon merger talks with one of the world’s biggest law firms, Britain’s Clifford Chance.
The international financial crisis has prompted the withdrawal by the nationwide Australian law firm.
Had the merger gone ahead it would have created a global legal giant with more than 800 partners, offices on every continent and estimated revenues of more than $3.5 billion.
The deal’s collapse means the 203 Mallesons partners have, temporarily at least, lost the chance of joining an organisation that enjoyed profit per partner of $2.6 million last year.
This is more than double the profit share paid to top partners in Australia’s leading law firms.
Neither firm would discuss the aborted merger.
Am Law Daily
Legal Week: Clifford Chance, Mallesons Merger Off
http://amlawdaily.typepad.com/amlawdaily/2008/12/legal-week-clif.html
Clifford Chance and the Australian firm Mallesons Stephen Jacques have called off preliminary merger talks, according to Legal Week, an Am Law Daily sibling publication.
The two firms first talked merger in 1999, and the discussions started up again this year, Legal Week says. The merger would help Clifford Chance continue expanding its presence in the Australia-Asian market, experts said; the firm was one of six major international firms to receive licenses to open offices in Singapore last week.
The firms called off the merger in part because of the crumbling global economy, the paper says.
The Lawyer Magazine (UK) has also published the following op-ed in its daily online newsletter update
LAWYER NEWS DAILY – 09/12/2008
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Chance encounter
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The end of the Clifford Chance-Mallesons merger talks, which we revealed exclusively yesterday, are a sign of the times (see story).
As this week’s leader explains, the aborted discussions could have made the most exciting law firm tie-up of the year but fell victim to… yes, you guessed it: the credit crunch (see leader).
But not the credit crunch alone. The jitters at CC also relate to the firm’s own particular failings in New York, where trouble that began with its ill-fated merger with Rogers & Wells continued with the anticipated litigation boom’s failure to materialize, and escalated last week with the departure of four litigation partners (see story).
However as many of the comments on that last story suggest, the end of the merger talks might be a blessing in disguise for partners at Mallesons – and not just the third of them that would have been culled from the equity.
"The partners are more interested in themselves than the lawyers," posted one supposed former CC lawyer.
"A hostile, arrogant place," wrote another, while a third poster commented that "the partners at Clifford Chance have not grasped the basic fact that you can still make money and treat staff with respect."
An unlucky miss for Mallesons or a lucky escape? Have your say.
http://www.thelawyer.com/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=136006&d=415&h=417&f=416
