After another bout of partner turnover, Friederike Heine assesses Mayer Brown's progress in the City

A decade since the union between Chicago's Mayer Brown & Platt and London mid-tier Rowe & Maw, the question remains: when is the firm's European practice going to start really adding up? On paper the union of a proud US parent and a solid City practice in need of scale and a bit more grit always made sense – for what that's worth. But Mayer Brown has been through more than its fair share of turbulence since its 2002 union, to the extent that even the firm's supporters would be hard pushed to say it has yet delivered on that promise.

That familiar turbulence was in evidence again with a renewed run of senior departures since the summer. This kicked off in October with the departure of high-profile litigator Clare Canning, who left to become the global general counsel of accounting giant Ernst & Young. Her contemporaries Simon Willis and Matthew Lawson, who joined Mayer Brown alongside Canning from Barlow Lyde & Gilbert in 2007, also quit this year to join the London arm of Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe.