It's been a sign of the times which has been hard to miss at airports throughout Australia: large billboards proclaiming the arrival of Norton Rose. The billboards are part of a three month saturation campaign to promote the Deacons-Norton Rose transformation. "It wasn't cheap, but the ads were incredibly commented upon - every dollar spent was worthwhile," Norton Rose Australia chief Don Boyd told ALB.

Boyd has a deeper purpose than brand awareness. He has made six lateral partner hires so far this year and plans to make another 24 appointments over the next two years as part of a push to align the firm's expertise in Australia with that of Norton Rose globally. However, the head-hunters should not become too excited - the firm is planning to do much of the recruitment itself and will continue a strategy of identifying and making systematic approaches to likely candidates. "Our partners are in the best position to identify the best and the finest and quite often they already know them - we're not afraid to make that approach ourselves," said Boyd.

Boyd says that he has also received a number of unsolicited queries from partners at other firms, including the top tiers. "They are attracted to what we are offering - we have a different story to tell, offices in 30 cities which is attractive to partners seeking to develop cross-border practices. We've also had a lot of queries from Australians currently off-shore and looking to return to Australia, but wanting to continue working with the same international clients."

An ambitious graduate recruitment programme, designed to eventually assist the resourcing of the firm's Asia offices, will assist with maintaining leverage, as will the fact that several existing partners have taken advantage of the opportunity to relocate to Norton Rose offices in places such as Moscow, Singapore, London and Jakarta. While there is an expectation that these partners will eventually return to Australia, they draw their remuneration from the local office while they are off-shore. It is a way of ensuring that the firm can operate globally without full financial integration, although Boyd reiterated that financial integration was still the objective and the firm was still anxious to resolve the well publicised complications relating to liability.