Berwin Leighton Paisner and Bryan Cave to merge in April

International Tax Review is part of Legal Benchmarking Limited, 4 Bouverie Street, London, EC4Y 8AX

Copyright © Legal Benchmarking Limited and its affiliated companies 2025

Accessibility | Terms of Use | Privacy Policy | Modern Slavery Statement

Berwin Leighton Paisner and Bryan Cave to merge in April

Mayhew and Pritchard

US firm Bryan Cave and UK law firm Berwin Leighton Paisner are to merge after the tie up was approved in a vote by partners of both firms on February 26 2018.

The merged entity, which will officially launch in April 2018 under the name Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner, will be co-chaired by Therese Pritchard, chair of Bryan Cave, and Lisa Mayhew, managing partner of BLP.

The beefed up firm will be among the top 10 in the US for M&A activity, rank fourth globally for number of partners working on pure real estate matters, and will represent 30 of the world’s top 50 banks by revenue (not all necessarily in tax matters). It will be present in all the world’s major financial centres and have specialist offerings in international corporate tax and private wealth.

Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner will have a presence in 17 US cities, three German cities and three cities in the UK as well as in Brussels and Paris. It will also be present in Moscow, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Tel Aviv, Beijing, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Singapore.

It is expected that operations in cities where only one of either Bryan Cave or BLP are present will remain largely the same in the short term.

“The Moscow-based team, office location and contact details will remain the same,” said Andrey Goltsblat, managing partner of Goltsblat BLP in Moscow. “No changes to the Moscow office operations are planned.”

more across site & shared bottom lb ros

More from across our site

The deal to acquire ITR's parent company is expected to complete by the end of May 2025
JBS, the biggest meat company in the world, allegedly used Luxembourgian ‘mailbox companies’ to avoid taxes between 2019 and 2022
Despite the conviction of Jessa Dabalos, the Tax Practitioners’ Board’s investigative work continues with five outstanding PwC scandal probes
Heads of tax need to push their teams forward as strategic business advisers to add value across their organisations, says Sandy Markwick
Scott Bessent reportedly felt undermined by Musk naming Gary Shapley as acting IRS commissioner; in other news, Baker Tilly will combine with a top 15 US firm
The promise of nine years’ tax certainty and a ‘rational and pragmatic’ government process makes APAs a no-brainer, Indian tax advisers tell ITR
Despite garnering significant revenues from multinationals, Italy’s digital services tax presents pressing double taxation issues, say Stefano Simontacchi and Francesco Saverio Scandone of BonelliErede
ITR’s research shows that in-house tax counsel in Asia also feel underserved by their advisers’ international networks
World Tax global head of research Jon Moore tells ITR how his team spots standout submissions, and gives early statistical insights into this year’s entries
Australia’s conservative opposition will repeal controversial tax agent reporting rules if elected in the country’s May general election
Gift this article