Freshfields is planning the expansion of its Eastern European practice, along with its German and Austrian partners, Deringer Tessin Herrmann & Sedemund and Wolf Theiss & Partner.
The three firms are investigating the opening of offices in Poland and Hungary, although partners at the firms insist that discussions are still very much at an informal preliminary stage.
Wolf Theiss is also in the process of rapidly expanding its Prague office, which it set up last year.
The office currently has 10 lawyers and another five are expected to join within the next few months. A leading US lawyer is poised to join the office in May – although Wolf Theiss was reluctant to reveal his identity.
Wolf Theiss partner Horst Ebhardt, who sits on the Freshfields/Deringer/Wolf Theiss Eastern Europe committee, said: "Prague is our first target. We have expanded the office dramatically."
However, Ebhardt said the three firms are also looking to expand in other Eastern European locations. "We are, of course, discussing with Freshfields and Deringer our options in central and Eastern Europe. But we have not yet decided on anything definite.
"We are actively looking at the marketplace. We are doing this all the time. We are looking at Poland and Hungary although we haven't entered into any formal stage of discussion. We will need to do the due diligence work first. It is a long process and one that we will only do jointly between the three firms."
Ebhardt also said the joint Moscow office of Freshfields and Deringers was doing "extremely well" despite the Russian crisis.