FIELD FISHER WATERHOUSE CREATES EUROPEAN ALLIANCE

SINGLE BRAND: five firms join under a common identity

City firm Field Fisher Waterhouse has joined with leading law firms in Germany, France, Ireland and Scotland to operate under the brand name the European Legal Alliance.The firm said it turned down the advances of US giant Mayer Brown Platt - which this week merged with Rowe & Maw - to team up with Buse Heberer Fromm, Dubarry le Douarin Veil, Beauchamps and Harper Macleod respectively in a deal expected to lead to a full merger within the next five years.The five firms will keep their names but operate under the common identity, sharing clients and staff, and offering a single client bill for cross-border transactions.Mark Abell, Field Fisher's practice development partner and member of the alliance's executive board - to which each firm contributes two partners - said: 'We resisted the approach from the US because we thought we needed to sort our own back yard out first.

'We established strict criteria and carried out thorough research and due diligence to find firms with strong technological and corporate capabilities.

The result of two and a half years' work is the alliance.'Mr Abell said that despite the strategy and initiative for the venture coming from Field Fisher, and the firm providing 71 of the alliance's 150 partners, it was very much a partnership.'In order to compete in Europe, we believe you need a single brand, and we will all share marketing strategies, logos, a Web site and brochures,' he said.Mr Abell said the alliance will be expanding in a 'steady, business-like way', adding a Spanish and Italian member in the next 18 months and then looking to the Benelux countries.Andrew Towler