For many City firms, terms like size and shape mean getting smaller. In Ashurst's case, as this week's analysis makes clear, the business has been genuinely refashioned over the last two years.

So while around 30 partners have been managed out through two rounds over the last 16 months, no less than 26 have joined the firm. The expansion is directly linked to Ashurst's desire to build its international practice, which until recently contributed only a third of the firm's revenues, almost all of which came from Europe. The firm can now point to a sizeable US business and rapid expansion in Hong Kong and Singapore.

Ashurst is betting that there will be a large band of transactionally-driven international law firms emerging below global leaders such as Linklaters, Freshfields and Sullivan & Cromwell, and Ashurst is intent on booking its place in the club. That will require substantial work on the firm's foreign network. While its practice on the Continent has come a good way, it's a long distance off being the finished article. And expanding outside of Europe has barely begun, even if launches in New York and Hong Kong represent a substantial step forward. But there is clearly a plan of action, and the firm has shown nerve in seeing that through at a time when the temptation to slash investment will have been strong.

And no one among an unsettled partnership seems to be questioning the gameplan, even if some argue the firm overpaid when absorbing the McKee Nelson team last year. What has been questioned is the firm's handling of its restructuring and the extent to which Ashurst can reconcile its global ambitions while clinging to its treasured culture.

Critics would contend that the firm should have been more transparent with partners about the reasons behind the cuts. Obviously, you don't broadcast details of the individuals on the risk list around the partnership, but it would have been easier for Ashurst to move forward if the firm had worked around a single, transparent event. I don't doubt the motivation was to protect the dignity of the individuals involved, but the firm could have done better on this front, and now has some wounds to heal.

With regards to culture, it's not apparent if Ashurst has always thought through the extent to which maintaining its ethos is compatible with its goals. Linklaters is one obvious touch-point, yet at times Ashurst instinctively recoils from some of that larger firm's sharper edges. Yet firms like Norton Rose and Lovells are viewed as lacking competitive fire. At times Ashust has appeared to shift rather arbitrarily between both paths. Claims of an identify crisis are overblown but the firm has a way to go towards refining and articulating how its culture will adapt to very different times.

On the plus side, management still has widespread support among the partnership, even if the relationship between executives and troops had grown more distant and uncertain last year. Managing partner Simon Bromwich has a strong operational record and was a major force in helping the firm regroup six years ago as it pulled itself out of its post-Fried Frank daze.

Charlie Geffen, likewise, is well suited to the senior partner role, combining strong client credentials, genuine enthusiasm for the job (less common than you'd think) and sound instincts. Some see Geffen as more ruthless as senior partner than predecessor Geoffrey Green, but it is ironic that there has been something of a communication issue given that Geffen enjoys the sounding-board-to-the-partnership part of his brief.

It is also helpful that Ashurst's practice is performing relatively well given its practice profile and is now slowly moving into recovery mode. Unlike some rivals, its recent struggle isn't really the narrative of a credit-driven deal shop falling back to earth. The firm's property practice has been solid through the crunch, and its finance practice, while initially looking like a rabbit in the headlights in the wake of the banking crisis, appears to have quickly regrouped. Projects, infrastructure and transport, likewise, remain robust. If the firm takes a hard look in the mirror, it should ask itself if corporate has really kept pace with the firm's development over the last 15 years, but overall, it's a positive picture.

The firm has taken has taken some high-stakes bets to secure its position. Providing those bets are broadly sound, and the firm learns a few lessons from a turbulent restructuring, Ashurst will remain one of the City's best prospects to credibly go global.