A 16-lawyer Hungarian practice has turned its back on a merger with Clifford Chance to join up with accountancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and its legal network, Landwell.Dezs Fendrik & Partners has merged with another Hungarian practice, Rti & Antall and the 14-strong legal team from PwC in Budapest to create the largest law firm in Hungary.

The new firm, Dezs Rti & Antall, has eight partners and a total of 40 fee-earners.The background to the deal is a confusing swirl of failed long-distance relationships, with both the Hungarian firms having recently split from international associations: Dezss was allied with the Pnder Group until March this year, while Rtis was associated with Canadian firm Stikeman Elliott until 1998.

The Pnder Group was the international network of German firm Pnder Volhard Weber & Axster, which merged with Clifford Chance on 1 January.A Landwell spokeswoman said: 'The link with Pnders was broken because Dezss did not want to merge in Hungary with the local Clifford Chance office.' The three-way merger has allowed PwC to leapfrog Clifford Chance's 34-lawyer local firm, Kves Clifford Chance Pnder.

CMS Cameron McKenna's practice becomes the third biggest with 31 lawyers, and Baker & McKenzie trails in fourth place with 16 lawyers.The new firm's net revenue of the financial year ending 2001 will be $4 million (2.7 million), and Landwell hopes this figure will double in five years.

Anne Mizzi