When hundreds of City lawyers descend on Amsterdam this week for the annual conference of the International Bar Association (IBA), it will not be a new experience for those in the low countries.

In the past year, they have become used to Anglo-Saxon invasions.A year ago, the Netherlands legal market was said to be in 'turmoil' after a spate of mergers with large City firms.

Aside from Clifford Chance, which has had a presence in Amsterdam since the 1970s, Freshfields was the first major firm to establish a presence in Amsterdam last year, attracting high-profile lawyers from various existing Dutch firms for its new office, including De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek, a member of Linklaters & Alliance.

Allen & Overy then moved in on the act, carving away 32 partners from Loeff Claeys Verbeke, then the largest Benelux firm.

Not to be outdone, Eversheds followed suit in December, announcing a merger with Boekel De Neree.'Even the Dutch firms that didn't want to merge had to have courage to avoid the stampede,' recalls David Maister, a US-based consultant who advises legal and other professional firms in Europe and the US.

Simultaneous developments in the Luxembourg jur isdiction, mainly known for its lucrative banking sector, mirrored its larger neighbour.

Three wellknown local firms joined the Linklaters alliance, Allen & Overy and Clifford Chance, after the Luxembourg Bar opened its doors to foreign firms.

In Belgium, there were fewer changes as a result of foreign firms moving into the market, as many already maintained offices in Brussels.

However, some mergers took place between Belgian firms.The stated strategy of these firms was their development into truly European practices with a 'multi jurisdictional capability', in the words of Allen & Overy partner Alistair Asher, who oversaw the integration of the firm's Amsterdam office with the former Loeff Claeys Verbeke partners.

'We hit a wave of mergers at just the right time,' says Mr Asher, whose firm is currently advising Dutch drinks company Bols Royal on its £645 million takeover by Remy Cointreau.

'Our back office systems are now compatible and we can move staff and resources between London and Amsterdam more easily.'The strategic logic of the merger, according to Mr Asher, was the logic of the market: 'The key to the future is to develop internationally along product lines.

Our caseflow was sufficient to drive us towards integration -- perhaps 75% of our deals demand a multi-jurisdictional capability.

Those who think that the alliance system works better are 15 years behind.'He is equally positive on the practical and cultural dimensions of the merger.

'The Dutch are an easy people to get along with for the Brits.

We had been associated for ten years, knew each other well and were good friends.'But Mr Maister sounds a note of caution: 'There is a logic to mergers in terms of catching the European work -- but it's been overdone.

It isn't necessarily persuasive enough to go around merging.' He sees potentially problematic issues in the integration of firms.

'UK firms are better administered compared to their Dutch counterparts, but they have bad records of practice group discipline.

No one is playing the role of manager.'Mr Maister points to 'very real cultural differences' between the two countries, putting UK firms' ability to manage integration into doubt.

'The UK is democratic, but not to the extent of the Dutch.

They aren't so obsessed with status in the way that the City is -- it's not their style.

But while they are very modest on the surface, underneath they are fiercely proud.'Existing Dutch firms have long looked beyond their own borders for legal work, thanks to the commercial importance of Amsterdam and international arbitration cases in The Hague.

Paul Storm, a partner at 118-partner Dutch firm Nauta Dutilh, admits that the climate of the top-end legal market in the Netherlands has become 'tougher' than previously.

'Competition has increased between firms -- the atmosphere has changed since the disintegration of Loeff Claeys Verbeke.'However, he remains sanguine about the prospects for his own firm, which has stood apart from the merger stampede.

'We have a policy of not engaging in mergers, because we want to remain independent,' he says.'Sophisticated clients know where to go -- they don't want to be forced into getting all their services from a one-stop shop.

With a choice of independent correspondent firms, the client can go to the best firm for the job.' His firm has benefited from other firms' mergers: 'Clients who prefer dealing with an independent firm than a larger one like Linklaters have come to us:Loyens & Loeff was formed at the beginning of this year from a merger between the residual Dutch partn ers of Loeff Claeys Verbeke and Loyens & Volkmaars, a tax consultancy firm.

Managing partner Bert Westendorp agrees: 'We have had referrals from US firms who don't want to give work to other large firms like Freshfields and Linktaters, because they are competitors.

Independence has worked well, in our experience.'Large transnational firms are keen to market both their seamless service, achieved through integration of support services and practice groups, and the niche expertise provided by their lawyers within a particular jurisdiction.

But while big firms such as Freshfields, Clifford Chance and Allen & Overy are focused on high profile merger and acquisition, finance, and banking work, firms in the Benelux countries have traditionally practised across a much wider range of areas.

'Even a finance lawyer might help an aunt or neighbour with their divorce,' says Ehillip Onimus, a corporate litigation lawyer at Luxembourg firm Assa Lutgen & Schaack.When the big firms arrived, they brought an increasingly commercial legal culture with them, raising issues about who would and who would not fit into newly merged firms.

Often the only way forward in such situations is a 'friendly divorce', in the words of David Maister.'The partnership demerged in a sensible and prudent way.' says Hube Harmeling, an intellectual property lawyer with the former Loeff Claeys Verbeke who moved to Freshfields upon the former's dissolution in Holland.

In some cases, however, the advent of a more hard-nosed legal culture has collided with existing ways, in a jurisdiction where reputation and personal contacts still go a long way.At Clifford Chance's Luxembourg associate firm Faltz & Kremer, Christian Kremer precipitated a split with his partner Ren Faltz when he recruited a senior associate from Bonn Schmitt & Steichen, where managing partner Alex Schmitt was a close friend of Mr Faltz.

'Schmitt considered it an act of war,' comments one Luxembourg lawyer.

'There was surprise and shock in Luxembourg: Rene Faltz was the founder of the firm.

People perceived the episode as Kremer kicking Faltz out of his own firm.'When the former Loeff Claeys Verbeke demerged last year, its Belgian practice remained, and the market in Belgium appeared less affected by the flurry of legal mergers in neighbouring Holland.

The trend towards specialisation of top-end firms became more evident there last week, however when Allen & Overy moved a step closer to merging with Lueff Clays Verbeke (see [2000] Gazette, 14 September, 6).

Its large employment practice group is to be streamlined in preparation for the rest of the firm's merger, with employment partner Thierry Claeys leaving with the bulk of the team to set up a boutique firm.An even bigger issue in the low countries is the debate over multi-disciplinary partnerships (MDPs).

The big accountancy firms such as Arthur Andersen and PricewaterhouseCoopers are in Holland and Belgium in a big way and are making their stand against local Bar opposition.In the first round, the Dutch courts upheld the Bar's ban on MDPs, but the case has been referred to the European Court of Justice, with a hearing expected either this autumn or next spring.

Andersens will release its submission to the court at a press conference to be held this week.The court's verdict is expected to set a significant precedent for the issue across Europe, and shows the tension in the legal world between the older ideal of a professional lawyer, and the commercialism ushered into the Benelux profession by the wave of mergers.'We hope that we will win th is case, as we did before it went to appeal,' says Marek Guensberg, vice dean of the Dutch Bar and a company lawyer at CMS Derks Star Busmann, part of City firm Cameron MeKenna's network.

"the case has to do with the necessary independence of advocates.

They belong to the parties they act for and are bound by client confidentiality, but accountants don't always see their relationship with their clients in the same way.'