If you’re still doubting the imminent prospect of a Mallesons/Clifford Chance global merger, take one look at the Run of the Milliner.

Our favourite Chief Executive Partner, who a remarkable 58 of you think is a part-time warlock (see poll, to the right), featured in an article earlier today in The Australian about changes to lawyer remuneration in which the following was said:

Mr Milliner said the speed at which Australian firms abandoned “lock-step” salaries for all employed lawyers with the same years of service would be strongly influenced by international practice.

He said the use of lock-step salary setting had been declining at major British law firms before the global financial crisis and there was no reason why this trend should not continue once the global recovery became entrenched.

“Over time I think you will see movement (in Australia) away from lock-step towards greater degrees of performance-based salary-setting,” Mr Milliner said.

Hmmm… a remuneration change to please an international suitor, perhaps?

Since our article a couple of weeks ago in which we published a rumour suggesting a merger is set to take flight within weeks, the Firm Spy has been literally inundated with emails and tips from readers corroborating various parts of the anonymous quote we published. We have chosen not to publish these additional quotes because they add little value to what is already known. Of course we appreciate you sending them through.

The eurocentric, British slant informing Milliner’s comments above, however, must surely be the clearest sign yet that Mallesons Clifford Chance will set the legal world alight at some point in 2009.

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News just to hand.  Clifford Chance has become the first Magic Circle firm to announce a formal redundancy scheme for ‘a number of lawyers’.  An initial round of ‘70-80’ layoffs will be undertaken through a ‘collective consultation process’. According to the Spy’s sources, the following email was sent by the firm’s London managing partner on Thursday:

This note is to tell you that we are proposing to make a number of lawyers redundant in the London office.

Clifford Chance Taking No Chances

Jeremy

Interestingly, while ‘trainees will not be affected’ by the redundancies, they are still invited to a briefing session.  This bodes ill for associates at all London firms, and one wonders if it will set a precedent elsewhere.  Is your firm laying off?  Put the heat on: tell the Spy.

A top-secret merger proposal between Clifford Chance and Mallesons Stephen Jaques, which was unknown to many

A Clifford Chance lawyer says no to Mallesons merger proposal

A new merger proposal, coming after the failed bid in 1999, was shelved as a result of the market downturn.

The talks did not extend as far as the partnership as a whole and were confined only to partners involved in management. A Mallesons Firm Spy remarked that:

‘several older members of the partnership must surely fear that if the merger went ahead, the sleaker international outfit might not have involved them’

Meanwhile, one Clifford Chance insider told Legal Week the discussions had been aborted because the Magic Circle firm wants to concentrate on its existing business in the current market conditions.