Linklaters alliance alert

MANAGEMENT STRUCTURE: Belgian partners defect as European network is centralised

City giant Linklaters denied this week that its international alliance was under threat after a group of partners from its Belgian member defected ahead of a vote on merger, a few days after the members decided they no longer needed a separate management structure.Six partners and an unspecified number of other fee-earners from De Bandt Van Hecke Lagae & Loesch - including former managing partner Roel Nieuwdorp, who led most of the negotiations with Linklaters - this week joined the Brussels office of top Dutch firm Loyens & Loeff.

The vote by De Bandt partners will be held this week.Mr Nieuwdorp said his concern was that the merged firm - and he was confident the merger would be approved - would move to the high end of the market, cutting out De Bandt's traditional Belgian client base of mid-sized companies.Mr Nieuwdorp said his decision to leave was based on this broader issue, but conceded that he had concerns about management of the merged firm.

'It is important to keep control over your own market and how you want to operate,' he said.

'But in a global firm a lot of that will have to be streamlined towards the global approach.' Last week, Terence Kyle, who was chief executive of Linklaters & Alliance, was appointed managing partner of the Americas to develop its US law practice worldwide.Linklaters senior partner Charles Allen-Jones justified the dissolution of the Alliance management structure: 'Our view is that the best way to provide management support for the Alliance is from the London office of Linklaters rather than a separate and costly management structure.'It comes in the wake of the German and Swedish members merging with Linklaters.

The Dutch and Italian members are unlikely to merge.Victoria MacCallum