Linklaters' losses unlikely to upset firm's Big Apple cart.

(From The Lawyer)

The roles were reversed within the magic circle in New York last week. While Allen & Overy (A&O) and Clifford Chance made their presences felt with new lateral hires, Linklaters suffered its first group defection.

Linklaters' loss of three lawyers in its New York office, including US head of corporate Mark Palmer just two years after he joined the outpost from Stroock & Stroock & Lavan, may signal the end of the firm's winning recruitment streak.

Unlike Clifford Chance, which has been shedding partners at an extraordinary rate since its merger with Rogers & Wells in 2000, or A&O and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, which have made little headway in the city in terms of headcount, Linklaters has been recruiting up a storm in the past three years.

Linklaters has successfully implemented an aggressive growth strategy, increasing from 50 lawyers at the start of May 2004 to 108 lawyers last month - that is, until last week's defections.

As a US recruiter warned: "The losses may be a one-off, but it may also unsettle the rest of the team."

Linklaters was already showing signs of waning momentum even before the defections, having only made one lateral partner hire in New York in 14 months and losing finance partner Kevin Hall to Reed Smith earlier this year.