NY Lawyer [and Law.com] report that Linklaters is being sued for $55 million in "one of the largest cases against a top U.K. law firm in recent times.

The Magic Circle firm is preparing for a 20-day trial in the High Court next January over claims it gave negligent advice to Baltic telecoms company Levicom. Linklaters was instructed to advise Levicom in 2000 over a dispute with telecoms company Tele2 AB.

Levicom claims Linklaters’ advice on the dispute led to an arbitration in 2004, rather than a settlement on favorable terms. The company claims Linklaters advised it that its case had a 70 percent chance of success if it were to go to arbitration, but at a later date reduced that to 50 percent. It says that, based on Linklaters’ advice, it turned down three settlement offers.

According to the claim form, which was initially filed in October 2006 but was amended in April this year, Levicom is claiming damages for "the lost opportunity to negotiate a more advantageous settlement". It is also seeking an uplift of at least 10 percent, bringing the minimum claim value to $55 million. "