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Magic circle firms divided over vision for asset finance practices

Oh come on! Linklaters hasn't so much shrunk its asset finance team as executed the las remaining remnants of it and delivered the remains to Hogan Lovells with a cheery hello and "thank God we got rid of that". Olga Petrovic used to do asset finance and is more than capable of doing an asset finance deal should it come along...whether it will or not is another story. Far more profitable work out there for her and frankly good luck to her there considering what Linklaters has done to its partners in the past. As for the two departing partners (with bootmarks in appropriate places!)...neither had a business case to speak of (certainly by Linklaters standards). Neither partner supportive of their team when the time mattered, which is probably why the asset finance "team" started to collapse after Linklaters' disastrous Project New World. Where does this leaves Hogan Lovells? Two extra mouths to feed with a business case and profitability that was laughable even by the standards of a high street firm. Where does this leave Linklaters? Two partners (one of whom has to have been the most unpopular partner in the whole banking department) less. Very much...Hogan Lovells loss, Linklaters gain. Is that the sound of champagne corks popping at Linklaters?

27-Mar-2011

7:30 am