The negotiations between Denton Hall, Richards Butler and Theodore Goddard over a possible three-way merger have been called off. The merger would have created the seventh largest law firm based in the UK, according to statistics gathered for the recently published 1999 edition of the International Financial Law Review 1000 directory. While the firms found they had a very good fit in London, that situation was not reflected overseas. Although the press release mentions "difficulties in merging the Hong Kong offices of Denton Hall and Richards Butler", sources close to the talks indicate that it proved impossible to reconcile the Asian aims of Denton Hall with the independence insisted on by the Hong Kong office of Richards Butler.
November 01 1998