Ashurst partners are set for an October vote on full financial integration with legacy Australian firm Blake Dawson, following their 2011 tie-up.

A full merger of Ashurst and Blakes – now known as Ashurst Australia – will require a 75% majority of both partnerships when it goes to the vote later this year.

The combination would see the firms combine legally as one partnership with a shared global profit pool, with the combined firm operating a managed lockstep – a system both firms currently use. 

Partners will vote online at the end of October and early November after being presented with a paper outlining the business plan.

The vote, which has been brought forward from the beginning of 2014, comes after the initial tie-up was voted through by partners at both firms in September 2011 – a deal that saw the firms make a commitment to full financial integration, subject to several conditions understood to relate to profitability and revenue targets.

A full merger was subject to Blakes matching Ashurst's profitability; at the time the merger was announced the Australian firm's profitability was around 90% of Ashurst's average partner profits of £723,000. However, Australian media reports earlier this year of a potential 50-partner cull were dismissed by local managing partner John Carrington, who described the rumours as "widely inaccurate".

The terms of the 2011 tie-up also included an option for Ashurst to abandon the Australia deal in preference of a US merger ahead of full financial integration; however, such a deal has since failed to emerge.

One partner within the firm described the vote as "a done deal", adding: "The integration process has been long enough for both firms to adjust and we are already operating as one partnership in every other way. This vote is just a legal formality that has to take place."