Citi, the world’s largest bank, has brokered meetings between the UK’s biggest private equity houses and major law firms in a bid to strike investment deals before the Legal Services Act is fully implemented, the Gazette has learned.

Citi’s specialist legal group has sent its private equity experts to meet senior management at the UK’s top firms – and when given the go-ahead, arranged face-to-face meetings between firms’ senior management and the country’s top private equity houses.

Highly placed sources indicated magic circle firm Clifford Chance had met private equity representatives. Clifford Chance declined to comment.

Mark Dean, director in the law firm group at Citi Private Bank, said Citi was acting as a ‘conduit’ between law firms and private equity houses, targeting only those at the ‘top end of the market’. He also revealed that Citi could itself choose to invest in firms it had been targeting.

He said: ‘We go to law firms with a member of our equity capital markets team... they give them a feel for what private equity is thinking at the time. [They] have lots of contacts at private equity houses, which are anxious to meet with law firms.’

According to Dean, most of Citi’s presentations to law firms followed an initial approach from Citi, rather than a request from the firm. He said Citi’s equity capital markets team was reporting the opposite scenario with private equity houses.

Headquartered in New York, Citi is the world’s largest bank by revenues – $159bn (£81bn) in 2008 – and has total assets of $2.2trn (£1.1trn).

Magic circle firms Slaughter and May, Allen & Overy, Clifford Chance, Freshfields and Linklaters declined to comment specifically on whether Citi or private equity houses had met senior management.

A spokeswoman for Allen & Overy said: ‘We keep our options open.’

A Freshfields spokesman said: ‘We do not foresee that our firm would take advantage of [Legal Services Act] provisions at this point or in the medium term – we do not need the capital.’