Clifford Chance is constantly re-evaluating its partnership structure, including reviewing the Swiss Verein partnership model. However, it is sticking with a global profit pool for now. In an interview on globalisation, managing partner Matthew Layton told Forbes magazine that the firm had never got close to implementing a Verein but ‘what we will always look at, in terms of our overall objective, is whether the structure we have actually offers us the best opportunity to realise the ambitions of the firm.’
Conflicts and barriers
He said that they had always come back to the belief that the global profit pool was the route to go. The Verein imposed ‘barriers and conflicts within the system. That is not to say it does not offer some additional options of flexibility, but we haven’t felt the need to move away from that core principal in order to achieve what we have achieved.’ He added that globally the firm had recently successfully integrated two smaller firms into its structure when it moved into the Australian market. Elsewhere, when new offices were opened, the firm opened these from start-up operations and ‘have always found ways and structures to do that effectively and in a way that is aligned with our global profit pool for the firm.’ Source: Forbes.com
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