As Charles Russell Speechlys opens for business this month, the strategy of the newest entrant into the UK's top 25 firms is beginning to come into focus.

While both legacy firms have a notable private client heritage, senior partner Christopher Page says there is a subtle change in emphasis for the newly combined outfit.

"We are using private wealth as our hook rather than private client," he tells Legal Week. "That incorporates rather more than the traditional estates planning, tax and trusts work."

Page says this shift was one of the key drivers behind the merger. Both firms realised they needed to look at how they could bolster the commercial elements of their traditional private client work, including developing their real estate and corporate practices.

"Many of the clients will have fairly substantial corporate interests, which they've either owned for many generations or only acquired fairly recently through entrepreneurial activity," points out managing partner James Carter. "If we are going to provide a truly integrated service it's about those businesses as well as the individuals."

The new management team wants to challenge the likes of Macfarlanes and Taylor Wessing, rather than a traditional private client powerhouse such as Farrers.

"Farrers are excellent at what they do but I'm not sure they would say they have the same litigation or commercial arms as we now do," says Page.

"If you look at Macfarlanes' private client offering they are a top rated private client practice. But they are also a firm that takes private client beyond private client into private wealth," Carter adds. "They may not badge themselves as [that] overtly, but that's what we will do."

Convincing the market that it has the corporate nous to handle that type of work is the next test. Though the new firm's private client credentials are hardly in doubt – one Farrers partner says they are "looking forward to the challenge of facing an even more formidable opponent" – it may be a bigger leap to challenge the City heavyweights it now has in its crosshairs.

"My view on mergers like this is that if you put two firms together, just because you're a bigger firm you don't necessarily lift the practices into the upper tier," says a partner at a rival firm. "Speechly do have a corporate practice but that operates at the lower end of the market."

To bridge that gap in perception, Carter says the initial focus is most likely to be on strengthening its corporate offering.

"Do I think we are more likely to recruit in that area? The answer may be yes. When you already have a top private client practice the ability to recruit into that is relatively modest."

Of the legacy firms' combined £130.5m 2013-14 turnover, litigation accounts for some £21.9m and real estate £27.6m, compared to private client at £35m and business services at around £46m.

With extra size comes a broader geographical gaze too, with management saying that the firm will target regions where the private wealth work already exists, such as the Gulf and sub-Saharan Africa.

The new firm is ambitious but some important housekeeping still remains to be sorted out. Management want staff from legacy Speechlys' old headquarters at 6 New Street Square working alongside those from Charles Russell's London base at 5 Fleet Place – currently the combined firm's head office – in one London location, saving on the merged firm's substantial office costs.

While the firm has no immediate plans to shift from its two-location set up, Carter and Page hope the situation is only temporary.

"There's no denying the objective is to get the maximum use out of our premises," Carter says. "The issue that always comes up is why can't you sort this out quickly? But you can't sort out two large premises in the middle of London in just six months."

Such teething issues may be inevitable, but once the merger settles down, the firm is committed to matching its ambition and challenging some of the City's most respected players.

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