Linklaters finally made its first move into southern Europe this week with the establishment of a permanent Madrid office.

Linklaters corporate partner Miles Curley, who was previously on secondment to Uria & Menendez in Madrid, will head the new office.

Senior assistant Michael Allan, a securities and global product specialist who was previously seconded to Madrid firm Gomez-Acebo & Pombo, joins Curley, along with Wilma Rix, a corporate and commercial assistant.

Linklaters has been looking for a way into Spain ever since leading Madrid firm Uria & Menendez, along with French firm Jeantet & Associes, rejected the chance to join Linklaters & Alliance last year.

Curley spent 18 months working with Uria & Menendez, with much of that time spent planning the proposed tie-up with Linklaters.

He said the new Madrid office would focus initially on English law and international transactions, but was "absolutely committed" to building a Spanish law capability.

He said: "We are currently working on setting up our practice at our new offices," he said. "And working on the Anglo-Saxon aspects of international transactions. We've been pretty busy in that respect."

But Curley said Linklaters was looking to set up a "leading Spanish law practice". He said the firm had not decided on whether merger or organic growth was the best way forward in Spain.

"We are entirely open about how we deal with building the practice," he said. "We are going to sit down and talk to people in the marketplace with an open mind."

Curley said the firm had no mergers or significant hires in the pipeline for the immediate future.

"There is nothing cooking at the moment. We will start focusing on that from our new office."
Clifford Chance and Freshfields are already in Spain with substantial offices.

Allen & Overy and Stephenson Harwood also have Madrid offices.