“It’s one of the great ironies of everything that’s gone on at Ashurst,” says one former partner of the firm. “The partnership had wanted a US deal for so long, and then just as Charlie [Geffen] gets a firm on board, they vote him out.”
The full financial tie-up with Australian outfit Blake Dawson may be a key part of Geffen’s Ashurst legacy, but news that he and a small group of partners held early stage merger talks with US firm Sidley Austin last year suggests the former senior partner’s tenure could have been even more significant.
