The Law Firm Newswire - Herbert Smith senior partner David Gold has outlined his plan to drive the firm's European alliance forward, but has ruled out the need for a merger, 'The Lawyer' reports.

Gold has called an autumn meeting with the new managing partner of Germany's Gleiss Lutz, Rainer Loges, and his counterpart at Dutch firm Stibbe, Joost Van Lanschot, to bind the firms closer together.

In the latest edition of The Lawyer Podcast Gold said it is vital for the three firms to have closer ties in the way they deliver their service to clients. The aim, according to Gold, is for clients to feel as if they are dealing with just one firm.

Gold said that the three firms will spend the second part of this year focusing on how they can develop their relationship. However, he stressed that, if they can already provide a service that appears to come from one firm as opposed to three, the need for the firms to merge could be redundant.

"If a client doesn't recognise that they are using three different firms then I would question why we would need a merger," Gold said.