Berwin Leighton Paisner and Bryan Cave to merge in April

International Tax Review is part of Legal Benchmarking Limited, 1-2 Paris Garden, London, SE1 8ND

Copyright © Legal Benchmarking Limited and its affiliated companies 2026

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

Geopolitical rivalry is reshaping global tax cooperation, as the OECD’s minimum tax framework fragments and the EU grapples with the ensuing legal fallout
LED Taxand’s partner tells ITR about entrepreneurial inspirations, the importance of people skills, and what makes tax cool
Shiny new offices like Ryan’s in London Bridge aren’t just a cost – they signal that a firm is willing to align with its clients’ interests
Darren Graves will succeed Richard Houston, who is set to lead Deloitte EMEA; in other news, Morgan Lewis hired a three-partner tax team in New York
India also signed its first-ever bilateral APAs with France, Ireland, Indonesia and Sweden last year, the CBDT revealed
Chile’s revamped GAAR marks a shift toward structural scrutiny, pushing MNEs to strengthen tax governance, economic substance and compliance strategies
New reforms represent the most seismic shift in Canadian TP legislation since its enactment and a clear inflection point for MNEs, ITR has heard
Spain did not transpose EU VAT rules for SMEs or works of art; in other news, an increased VAT threshold came into force in South Africa
While the IBS incorporates taxable events previously covered by state and municipal taxes, its governance and operational logic represent a significant departure from the legacy model
The new office on the fourth floor of 4 More London will span 14,230 square feet, with the potential to expand to the first and second floors
Gift this article