Toward the end of the 1990s and the early part of the 21st century, the firm was linked to a succession of potential merger targets including a rejected offer from Eversheds in 1993 and a proposed tri-partite amalgamation in 1998 with Richards Butler and Denton Hall. However, following a third failed merger attempt in 2001, this time with Salans Hertzfeld & Heilbronn, the firm's credibility as a viable partnership was beginning to be called into question in both the legal press and the wider profession.