Field Fisher leaves its halfway-house

Are European alliances going out of fashion?

In 2003, Denton Wilde Sapte pulled the plug on its Denton International network, signalling the end of its attempt to build an alliance of like-minded firms in Western Europe. Last year, Lawrence Graham performed a similar volte face when it disbanded Lawrence Graham International, an eight-firm network it had been nurturing for more than a decade.

Today Field Fisher Waterhouse consigns its European Legal Alliance to the dustbin of history, as revealed by legalweek.com (see story).

But there is a key difference between the strategies of Dentons and Lawrence Graham on the one hand and Field Fisher on the other. For Dentons and Lawrence Graham, the moves signalled a scaling back of their European investment, at least in terms of bodies on the ground. Field Fisher, on the other hand, has upped the ante considerably.

It has hired four partners from former German ally Buse Heberer Fromm to launch an office in Hamburg and three partners from former Belgian alliance member Verhaegen to staff a new Brussels office.

It is also in merger talks with the Paris member of the alliance, the full-service practice Dubarry.

If you throw in an exclusive alliance with the Spanish network member and talks to do the same in Italy, it represents a tidy bit of business for Field Fisher.

For Field Fisher, the move represents a dramatic scaling up of its European ambitions. Far larger firms – notably Berwin Leighton Paisner – continue to balk at the prospect of building their own network in Europe, which has proved a graveyard for the ambitions of many an up-and-coming managing partner.

Alliances, however, are often portrayed as uncomfortable halfway-houses between true independence and mergers – and today's news does little to dispel this notion. It may have served Field Fisher well, allowing it to dip its toe into the waters of European expansion before making a far greater commitment.

But what of those alliance firms that no doubt believed membership would allow them to tap into a European network while also retaining their independence?

Funnily enough, Verhaegen was a member of Lawrence Graham’s network before climbing on board Field Fisher’s network. A case, surely, of out of the frying pan and into the fire.