On 2 April, 2004, as the two firms’ five-year association drew to the end of its official term, one of the worst kept secrets in the European legal market was finally made official: Italian leader Gianni Origoni Grippo & Partners was never – ever – going to merge with UK giant Linklaters.
The return to independence of Gianni Origoni was not a surprise, notwithstanding the fact that its announcement came less than a year after it signed a new bi-lateral agreement in March 2003 that updated the old Linklaters & Alliance contract.
