A group of partners from Fulbright & Jaworski's London arm have secured a secondment to Norton Rose's City arm for two years, walling them off from the remuneration system at Norton Rose's UK LLP.

The arrangement enables the partners to work alongside Norton Rose's London team and remain members of Texan firm Fulbright's LLP at the same time, after the merger goes live on 3 June. It is not clear how many of Fulbright's nine London partners will be covered by the agreement.

A spokesperson for Norton Rose said: "Transfers of teams from one law firm to another typically generate a number of individual partnership and tax issues which inevitably take time to address. The transfer process of the Fulbright London team to Norton Rose London is no different in this respect."

Fulbright's average profits per partner in 2012 was $780,000 (£503,000), according to The American Lawyer, while Norton Rose's UK LLP profits per equity partner in 2011-12 came in at £477,000.

Meanwhile, both Norton Rose's and Fulbright's Middle East bases will continue to operate under their respective legacy firms' LLPs, resulting in two Dubai offices in the Norton Rose group after the merger comes into effect.

Lawyers at Norton Rose will remain based in the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC), while Fulbright's office will stay in Festival City. Firms must obtain an offshore licence in order to practise in the DIFC.

Norton Rose commented: "In the Middle East, we have already indicated that there are a number of complex licensing issues to address in connection with our two offices in Dubai. Until such time that we have resolved these issues to our satisfaction, we will, from a regulatory point of view operate as two technically separate practices, but in practice will work together as one regional team in the Middle East."