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

Hany Elnaggar examines how the region's legacy economic substance regimes and the OECD's pillar two framework are converging on the same underlying test
The deals for TP Accurate and Intra Pricing Solutions will enhance Alphatax’s ability to support clients with the full TP lifecycle, the tax tech provider claimed
The DS Advocates partner discusses career reinvention, tax disputes and why advisory and litigation experience should complement one another
Lindsay Clayton’s arrival at Baker McKenzie continues the firm’s storied pursuit of ex-US government lawyers, a strategy reinforced by robust World Tax rankings
Shared transaction semantics, governed data and reusable ERP design may prove the most significant benefits of the UK's move to Peppol
As pillar two reshapes global tax competition, the UK faces a crucial challenge: how to remain attractive to multinationals without sacrificing tax revenues
Pillar two may be raising less than expected, but professor René Matteotti says the regime is still changing multinational tax behaviour
Multinationals importing goods into Brazil may need to align TP files and customs documentation more closely as authorities gain new tools to challenge related-party transactions
The private equity-backed deal hands Grant Thornton immediate and impressive US scale, but World Tax data suggests the firm still has work to do to gain recognition
From Instagram content to £100m transactions, the founder of Thomas & Co International discusses building a modern tax and accounting firm for business founders
Gift this article