Ashurst Morris Crisp has bagged a lucrative new client, advising Scottish newspaper giant Johnston Press on its proposed acquisition of Portsmouth & Sunderland News.
The deal will create the UK's fourth-largest newspaper group, worth £266m.
The work landed in Ashursts' lap after NM Rothschild, financial advisers on the deal, recommended the firm to Johnston, which then bypassed its normal corporate adviser, Glasgow firm MacRoberts.
Ashursts company partner Adrian Clark is leading the team advising Johnston.
Portsmouth & Sunderland also abandoned its lawyers, Rowe & Maw, following pressure from financial consultant Charterhouse, instead instructing Norton Rose for the first time. Norton Rose's team was led by head of corporate Simon Sackman.
But both Norton Rose and Rowe & Maw are set to lose Portsmouth & Sunderland if the deal, which is subject to shareholder approval, completes.
MacRoberts, however, will almost certainly pick up future work. Corporate partner Norman Martin acted for the company on the sale of its stationery business for £2.5m this month and corporate partner Ian Dickson is a non-executive member of the board.
Johnston's chief executive Tim Bowdler said the deal would not affect the company's relationship with MacRoberts – or with the other firms it uses.
The company also uses Peterborough-based Greenwoods for employment and licensing work, Leeds-based Nelson & Co for English property matters and Crockers Oswald Hickson for litigation.
Bowdler told Legal Week that given the complexity involved in bidding for another plc, the company had decided it was logistically better to appoint a top London firm.
Bowdler did not rule out using Ashursts for future work or the possibility of setting up some sort of formal panel, although he said he was satisfied with the way legal services were provided for now.
A Norton Rose source said that, despite acting in this deal, his firm was not optimistic about picking up work from the new amalgamated company.
Neither Clark nor Sackman had any comment to make on the deal.