Clifford Chance man returns to the WTO

A top World Trade Organisation (WTO) legal consultant seconded to Clifford Chance is to return to the WTO as an in-house counsel.

Peter Morrison, who will once again hold the title of senior legal adviser, acted as first port of call for the WTO at the firm as well as working for Reuters, a client worth up to £1m a year in fees.

But this time he will be working out of the WTO's Geneva office as opposed to its Brussels base, where he was stationed previously.

No one has yet replaced him at Clifford Chance.

While Morrison was at Clifford Chance he set up a network of lawyers across departments who worked on the WTO account under him.

A spokesman for Clifford Chance says: "They will carry on what he has been doing."

Key names that advise the WTO at Clifford Chance in London are the head of the firm's European competition and regulatory group Chris Bright, one of his partners Robin Griffith, and litigation partner Jeremy Carver.

In Brussels, partners Keith Hendry and Charles Van Sasse act on its trade and competition issues. And Bill Silverman advises the WTO out of the Washington office of Clifford Chance on trade matters.

Bright says that when Morrison was at Clifford Chance, his role of advising the WTO "was a London-based initiative".

But he adds that now Hendry will become a more important contact for the WTO.

He adds: "Competition is an area that is beginning to come alive in terms of where there are genuine roles."

Clifford Chance refused to comment on how it would redistribute Morrison's work for Reuters.