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Kaye Scholer's London team will move into Arnold & Porter's City office in Tower 42 when their merger goes live next year, as management figures at the new firm size up targets for growth in Europe.

When the two US firms combine on 1 January to become Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer, the combined firm will have 60 lawyers in Arnold & Porter's London base.

The London office will be led by Arnold & Porter's City head, competition partner Tim Frazer. Kaye Scholer's London office is currently led by aviation finance partner Philip Perrotta, who will return to full-time fee earning. According to their respective websites, Arnold & Porter has 19 partners in London at present, while Kaye Scholer has 10.

The firm is aiming to further expand in London in the wake of the merger. According to Arnold & Porter chairman Richard Alexander, the firm will need more square footage to cope with its new headcount. "We have to build out some more space," he said. "A larger office with an enhanced platform will make us more attractive for potential lateral candidates."

The merger will create a 1,000-lawyer global firm with combined revenues of around $1bn (£800m). The additional scale of the firm will give it the "firepower to further invest" in its international offices, according to Kaye Scholer managing partner Michael Solow.

Between them, the two firms have three non-US offices outside of London – Frankfurt and Shanghai for Kaye Scholer, and Brussels for Arnold & Porter.

The firm is targeting growth in Frankfurt, where Kaye Scholer currently has nine partners, and it is also not ruling out expanding to other cities in Germany. Solow said there are two or three other cities in Germany that are potentially attractive. But he added: "Whether it makes sense to grow beyond Frankfurt is something the new leadership of the combined firm will deal with in due course."

However, the combined firm is planning to devote more time to its international strategy.

"All these decisions are going to have to be made once we are together and we assess the business opportunities – there is a lot of change going on in both the US and Europe. We need to evaluate those opportunities, and we will do so," Alexander said.