Two more Linklaters partners quit for Oppenhoff

Linklaters partners quit for Oppenhoff" />Two more German Linklaters partners and a managing associate have joined boutique Cologne breakaway Oppenhoff & Partner for its launch on 1 January 2008.

Oppenhoff & Partner was set up by former Linklaters partners in Cologne after Linklaters decided to streamline and shut up shop there to move to Düsseldorf. Oppenhoff now houses 21 partners with the new joiners and recent promotions.

A spokesman for Oppenhoff & Partner commented: "Small is beautiful. It is a return to traditional values, away from the pressure on lawyers that you had at Linklaters where if in the first year there was no performance you would get the red card."

Partner and former head of Linklaters German litigation department Peter Klappich, ex-Linklaters partner and environmental lawyer Stephan Müller and former Linklaters property managing associate Lars Böttcher have all joined Oppenhoff & Partner's partnership.

Another seven former Linklaters managing associates who had earlier agreed to join the firm have also recently been elected to its partnership.

Michael Oppenhoff, one of the founding partners of the new firm Oppenhoff & Partner said: "We founding partners are very happy that we managed to convince young talents of our common goals."

When Linklaters closed the Cologne office it described the departees as having "strategic differences" with the management over the future of the firm.