We went looking for some news on Mallesons last night and stumbled onto an interesting piece. A cursory search on Google news revealed no less than three articles featuring a jubilant Mallesons boasting that it had lured Clifford Chance litigation expert Denis Brock.
We immediately thought two things:
- attracting Mr Brock to the firm will give Mallesons an excellent chance to save some face in the wake of ex-Mallesons partner Dave Poddar’s recent defection to A&O (and our subsequent article considering why it would make great sense for many other Mallesons partners to follow him in the “triple jump”); and
- there is something awfully fishy about a Clifford Chance partner “defecting” to Mallesons when virtually the whole legal world is waiting for an official announcement that Clifford Chance and Mallesons are merging.
We then thought that perhaps it was possible that these two issues are related: the Mallesons board conjured a way to strengthen its apparently vulnerable brand by contriving that it had “lured” a Clifford Chance expert, while at the same time giving that expert an opportunity to witness the nuances of Mallesons before reporting back to his old Magic Circle firm.
Tellingly, Mt Broc’sprofile still appears on the Clifford Chance website. Perhaps the firm will leave it there? His profile reveals that Mr Brock has been with Clifford Chance for 24 years and has been a partner for 15 years. In our view, there is every chance he is the kind of emissary who Clifford Chance would entrust with such an important reconnaissance mission.
Let’s recount the current state of intelligence on the Clifford Chance & Mallesons merger:
- In 1999, Mallesons & Clifford Chance first met to discuss merger plans;
- In late 2008, renewed merger talks broke down as a consequence of the GFC;
- In October 2009 we received a credible report that an in principle agreement on a merger had been reached between Mallesons & Clifford Chance and that a formal announcement would soon thereafter be made;
- Also in October 2009 we saw Mallesons CEP Robert Milliner comment that his firm would likely follow the lead of major UK firms in its remuneration structure of employees;
- In May 2010, the AFR published a report that Mallesons and Clifford Chance were again in advanced stages of merging, but this report was discounted by an anonymous comment we received that appears to have been authored by a Mallesons partner;
- In June 2010 we received our most logical report on the Clifford Chance plans in Australia: that it would do so on its own terms to the exclusion of Mallesons; and
- Also in June, our great friends at Rollonfriday delivered a very interesting scoop on the Mallesons/Clifford Chance tie-up; namely that Clifford Chance intends to open on its own terms in Australia but under the auspices of a “best friends” relationship with Mallesons under a formal “cross-referral agreement”.
In our view, these updates and all of the general intelligence we have gathered is at odds with Mallesons’ claim that a highly respected Clifford Chance partner “defected” to Mallesons.
Mallesons and Clifford Chance are “best friends”!
We think the more sensible view is that Denis Brock is relocating to Mallesons to help prosecute the rumoured merger or formal “cross-referral agreement” and the Mallesons board has seized on it as an opportunity to rebuff the much publicised (and very worrying) defection of Dave Poddar to A&O.
What do you think?
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