Merger talks between Field Fisher Waterhouse and Osborne Clarke have been abandoned. It's the second time this year that FFW has been unable to get a tie-up out of the trap.

FFW started courting Lawrence Graham back in May, as revealed by RollOnFriday. But the affair ended in tears and recrimination, with each side bitching about the other. FFW grumbled about LG's poor financials - which was probably fair, given that the latter has just announced another round of redundancies. And LG grumbled about a lack of unity amongst FFW's partners - which was also probably fair, given that the firm's COO has just resigned and the partners have been briefing against each other to anyone in the market who cares to listen.

So FFW went back on the dating scene and approached Osborne Clarke. But that too has now collapsed, albeit more amicably. OC said that their approaches were "too different to continue", but the talks had helped "build excellent relationships with the FFW team". FFW said that the process had been positive because of the "strong relationships and friendships that had been formed". Before skulking off to sit in a boarded up room full of decayed wedding cake.

A FFW partner yesterday

One insider at FFW was rather more prosaic, telling RollOnFriday that a number of difficult partners would need to be given the boot before anyone would consider taking them down the aisle. Expect some high level departures in the new year.