With Dewey & LeBoeuf continuing to dominate headlines as it speeds toward its now inevitable end, the news that Linklaters had become the latest international firm to pile into the superheated Australian legal market slipped somewhat under the radar.

Earlier this month, the Magic Circle firm announced that it had formed an “integrated alliance” with 800-lawyer Antipodean leader Allens, following similar moves by Ashurst, Clifford Chance, DLA Piper, and Norton Rose. Norton Rose got the ball rolling in 2010 by combining with midmarket firm Deacons as a Swiss verein; Clifford Chance launched in Sydney and Perth through mergers with local boutiques Chang Pistilli & Simmons and Cochrane Lishman Carson Luscombe in February 2011; while DLA Piper integrated financially with its long-term Australian ally Phillips Fox last May. Most recently, Ashurst combined its Asian operations with Sydney-based giant Blake Dawson this March, ahead of a proposed full merger in 2014.

Just to clarify, Links and Allens are not merging. The two firms remain independent—legally, fiscally, and managerially—having opted against a complete union in favor of referring work to each other on an exclusive basis. It is more than just a simple alliance, however, with the pair establishing two joint ventures targeting the fast-growing Asian market. The first involves the formation of a region-wide energy, resources, and infrastructure practice. The second specifically relates to Indonesia and will be built around Allen’s existing alliance with Jakarta-based Widyawan & Partners. And yes, money will change hands: The firms have agreed to share any costs relating to the development of the practices and will distribute revenue as appropriate.

The management of both firms were unavailable to speak in time for this column—a combination of stacked diaries and the 10-hour time difference between London and Sydney—but Allens chairman Ewen Crouch said in a statement that the alliance “will provide our clients with a service they cannot get elsewhere.”

I’m sure a few other firms may beg to differ, but it’s fair to say that the deal is significant—particularly from a Magic Circle perspective. Allens was the local “best friend” of Slaughter and May, which is currently reviewing its Australia strategy. And with Allen & Overy having established greenfield offices in Sydney and Perth in 2010, when it hired 17 partners from Clayton and Freehills, it also means that Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer is now the only Magic Circle firm not to have a presence Down Under. (Excluding Slaughters, which generally eschews international offices in favor of its famous referral network, of course.)

According to Freshfields London corporate partner James Wood, who leads the firm’s Australia practice, that isn’t going to change any time soon. “We’ve never felt any imperative need to open an office down there or start any formal alliance,” he says. “It’s a really competitive market, full of good firms that are generally less profitable than us. People talk about [Australia] being a gateway to Asia, which like many firms is a key focus for us. These joint ventures are a useful way of sharing the costs of growing your presence and do create some sort of foothold in the region, but being in Australia is not the same as being in Asia.”

Freshfields already acts for a number of major Australian clients—including financial institutions Macquarie and AMP, shopping center owner The Westfield Group, and mining giant BHP Billiton—and also has several international clients that are active in the country. In 2009 the firm advised private equity house Warburg Pincus on its cornerstone investment in an $800 million capital-raising by Australian waste management company Transpacific, for example.

As with all jurisdictions in which Freshfields operates but does not have on-the-ground capability, this practice is managed by a group of partners from around its network that have local experience. For Australia, this comprises Wood; U.S. corporate head Matthew Herman; fellow corporate partners David Higgins in London, Neil Radford in Moscow and Kai Hasselbach in Cologne; and Tokyo capital markets partner Edward Cole.

These partners maintain Freshfields’s various Australian referral relationships, which Wood says tend to be with firms that are home to former colleagues, such as Clayton Utz, Minter Ellison, Gilbert + Tobin, and Coors Chambers Westgarth. Wood admits that the firm is now less likely to use Blake or Allens following their ventures with Ashurst and Linklaters. “If a client wanted us to, then we’d be perfectly happy to do so, but we’d obviously prefer not to,” he says.

But the ranks of neutral Australian firms are thinning fast. Shortly after Blake’s transformation into Ashurst Australia took effect this March, Mallesons Stephens Jacques clinched a precedent-setting combination with China’s King & Wood—the first-ever merger between an international and Chinese law firm. (The combined business, which has rebranded to King & Wood Mallesons, now boasts more than 380 partners and 1,800 attorneys, making it bigger in head count terms than Sidley Austin and Greenberg Traurig.)

And with Herbert Smith currently in advanced talks with Freehills—which worked alongside Freshfields on the Transpacific deal, and whose Vietnam affiliate firm, Frasers Law Company, is headed by another Freshfields alumni—the pool of potential referral partners is set to get shallower still.

There are now just two members of Australia’s so-called ‘big six’—Clayton and Minter—left standing on their own. If either of these firms were to cede their independence, Freshfields may be forced to act.

“Of course we’d prefer to have more [independent firms] that we can work with,” Wood says. “We’ll have to keep an eye on how things develop, but Australia is a sufficiently well-lawyered market—so we’d be surprised if we weren’t left with at least a couple of decent independent firms that we can still use.”

That may be true, but most partners would have been equally surprised if you’d suggested even 18 months ago that the majority of the Magic Circle would be present in Australia. I wouldn’t rule out Freshfields joining them just yet.