Is there an Australian law firm more eagerly watched and commented upon than Gilbert + Tobin? Led by the wily Danny Gilbert, the firm has been one of the very few mid-size players to establish a place in the top tier, poaching liberally from the "big six" along the way. As Gilbert himself conceded in an interview with ALB last year, part of the firm's success has been luck - the firm's inception and development in the 1990s coincided fortuitously with a sudden flowering of new opportunities in the evolving telecommunications space - but with that good luck came no small measure of good management. An associate relationship with China's King & Wood, a new Melbourne office and successfully wooing Telstra's Will Irving with an alternative fee agreement are some of the recent highlights of the G+T journey.

Now we learn that G+T has initiated a new associate firm relationship with Perth's Blakiston & Crabb. While bromides such as "natural fit' and "synergy" should be used with caution, this may be one relationship where they are particularly apt, given the union between G+T's corporate and finance expertise and Blakiston's strong reputation in the resources space. The association with Michael Blakiston is likely to open doors for G+T in the notoriously parochial Perth market, while Blakiston in turn will benefit from exposure to clients outside of Perth and perhaps even Chinese clients through the King + Wood association.

There has been some speculation that the move is the first step in what might eventually be the establishment of a permanent G+T office in Perth. Danny Gilbert told ALB that there were no definite plans at present, but the firm was not adverse to the idea. "We are always looking for opportunities," he said. "There is a strong possibility at some point we'll have a presence in Perth." Gilbert said that the timeframe for this to occur would be "probably in the next couple of years" and no decision had been made on the exact form of the office: "Whether we do it separately or jointly [with Blakiston & Crabb], we'll see. Our preference is to do something with them - we'll see how it goes," he said.

In the meantime, Blakiston & Crabb will benefit from an increased depth and access to G+T's "back of house" resources, such as marketing and IT.  "Both Gilbert + Tobin and Blakiston & Crabb have similar cultures and share a similar history. We are both generation one firms, so we understand what clients require from their legal advisors," Blakiston said.

Gilbert + Tobin and Blakiston & Crabb also share something else in common. Both firms are synonymous (or should that be eponymous?) with their highly respected and strategically focussed managing partners and there is a fruitful line of speculation as to where both firms are headed in the longer term following the retirement of their title partners. In particular, there is no shortage of theories circulating about Gilbert + Tobin, with one particularly persistent rumour being that Gilbert is secretly engineering a merger with one of the "big six" before disappearing into retirement.

Gilbert said that there was no substance to such rumours and he intended remain in action for the foreseeable future. "I'm not retiring. I have thought [of retirement]  but it's not on the agenda at the moment," he said.  He was also bemused by the merger rumours and said the firm was not involved in any "serious" negotiations.  "If [the big six] have got an offer to make to me, they haven't made it," he said. "Let me say this - I've had lunch or a cup of coffee with nearly every major firm in the country at some point, about whether they would like to get together with us. It's never gone further than that."  That comment seems to imply that G+T is seeking a merger, but Gilbert said this was an overstatement: "I'm open to everything but I would take a lot of persuasion and it would have to be on terms that probably would not be acceptable to any of the major firms," he said.  "In part, that's because we don't want to do it. For us to do it, it would have be an extraordinarily good deal for us and we don't need to do it."

Perth to the fore
Many lawyers are seeing the G+T move as a vote of confidence in Perth - the second such endorsement following the arrival of Allen & Overy earlier this year.

"If you are a Sydney based firm and you want to provide national coverage to your clients, you have to have a presence in Perth and you have to have a presence in natural resources, given where the economy and the clients are going," said Cochrane Lishman Carson Luscombe partner Michael Lishman. He said that Gilbert + Tobin had essentially followed the clients: "There are far more clients and senior people in Perth these days. BHP Billiton is building a 46 story building in St Georges Terrace which they will fill with senior people. Oil and gas companies are also moving senior people to Perth. Chevron and Woodside have their own buildings here; Woodside and Wesfarmers are headquartered here."
 
The move also has implications for the Perth market which already has seen Franklyn Legal recently merge with Middletons, although those lawyers subsequently moved on to Corrs. While an associate firm relationship does not raise the same issues of commercial conflict as a merger, the move does provide a distinguishing point for boutique firms such as Cochrane Lishman which do not have any such links.

Perth lawyers have spoken of the "leakage" of work across to the east and there was some suggestion in February that the arrival of Allen & Overy would encourage clients to use local advisors. An association with an east coast firm such as G+T would hardly be a step in that direction - however, it is also true that the work which would flow to G+T is likely to have been done by lawyers on the east coast in the ordinary course of events.