A resurgent Linklaters posted stunning financial results at the end of the 2005 financial year, with revenue up 10 per cent and average PEP rocketing by an astonishing 25 per cent to £843,000. The mustard on the hotdog, however, was New York.

When US managing partner Paul Wickes joined the firm with a group of litigators from Shearman & Sterling, he was the catalyst for Linklaters’ hiring spree that in the past year alone saw a 50 per cent rise in headcount. The momentum those hires have lent the New York office has resulted in added credibility to its banking, private equity and investment funds practices, as well as instructions from clients such as KKR, Citibank and Qwest Communications.

Wickes’s skill has been evident not only in his ability to help attract a stream of quality laterals, but also in helping the rest of Linklaters understand the New York market a little better and fear it a lot less.