For this year's UK top 50, Legal Week has spoken to law firm leaders across the market for their take on the key trends from 2016-17, as well as their plans for the year ahead. In the first of a series of Q&As to be be published in the coming weeks, Linklaters managing partner Gideon Moore talks Trump, Brexit, clients and mergers.

How did Linklaters do last year?  "In the circumstances, particularly with Brexit as part of that period, it is a performance we ought to be pretty satisfied with. When you report the numbers on a sterling basis, they are slightly flattered by the exchange rate, but on a constant currency basis it wasn't a bad year.

"From my perspective, the way the strategy refresh I put in place has been received has been really pleasing. Business itself was fairly robust, but also the atmosphere, culture and everything that goes towards the confidence of the firm was bolstered through the strategy refresh."

What's the market like generally? "People don't do deals just so they can keep a law firm busy. It is important that law firms such as Linkaters make sure we keep close to our clients so we can understand what their needs are and support them.

"It's a case of reading the papers, seeing what is going on in the market and working out whether we are getting our fair share or more than our fair share. All I can do is make sure the resource we have is such that the market and clients want to use us rather than others. I can't see anything that suggests the market will go up a huge amount in terms of business activity, but I am not sure – looking at it on a global basis, it's fairly steady, deals are being done, but maybe not in great numbers."

What about the impact of macroeconomic factors like Brexit and Trump on performance?  "As a starting point, I can't do a huge amount to influence the outcome of the Brexit negotiations and I can't have much sway with what Trump does. With Brexit, until we are better aware of what the impact is for the UK and continental Europe, it's quite difficult to make any concrete decisions.

"From Linklaters' perspective, the fact we have full-service offices in the major centres in Europe means we are well positioned. If you say that the concern law firms may have is that work moves away from London, the markets to which it would be expected to gravitate towards are ones in which we have very strong offices. I am sat here thinking that the way in which my predecessors established the firm's structure was very far sighted, or very fortunate, or a combination of the two – as a result, we are well placed.

There's been a lot of talk about mergers but not that much activity – do you think we'll see more?  "There are a variety of reasons why people merge. If any of those circumstances apply and there are the right opportunities, then firms may decide what is good for them is a merger. I am pleased with the structure and setup of Linklaters. We can provide our clients with the sort of services they demand and I am not expecting to announce any mergers any time soon. We are concentrating on running the business we have. Where we need to make strategic hires we will continue to do so."

What's the focus for Linklaters now? "We want to make sure that we are able to deliver 'Team Linklaters' to our client base, by continuing to ensure that any internal barriers and divisions are removed so that we as a collegiate and unified team can deliver the best team and the best service.

"From our people's perspective, I want to make sure they feel that if they were to look back at their careers they could identify those years at Linklaters as being those in which they made the most progress and developed the best in terms of what they got out of it.

"It's about making sure the firm has the infrastructure, the confidence and collegiality and the teamwork to give our people their best opportunities and to service our clients."