By John Malpas
Travers Smith Braithwaite is preparing to make its first foray abroad by opening a Paris office. The new venture will be a standalone Travers office rather than a tie-up with a French firm.
The only factor preventing the firm from making its move are strict Paris bar rules preventing international firms from opening up in the city.
SJ Berwin & Co is planning to get around that problem by tying up with a Paris firm, but Travers has ruled this out as an option.
Next year an EU directive will sweep away the restrictions, but a Paris source said that Travers was in negotiations with the Paris bar in a bid to get the green light to open up this year.
Travers managing partner Alasdair Douglas said: "We have been thinking about the French market for a long time, but we are not yet in a position to make any announcements."
He said the firm was interested in tapping into cross border work, M&A and private equity work in France.
The move will amount to a major change of strategy for Travers, which is a long-standing member of the loose 17-member European alliance, The Information Club. Travers replaced Coward Chance as the UK member of the club when the latter merged with Clifford Turner to form Clifford Chance.
However, the alliance is being threatened by the wave of mergers and link-ups that is taking place across Europe.
The French member of the club, Giroux Buhagiar & Associes, resigned two years ago when it merged with fellow French firm Stibbe Simont Monahan Duhot.
And the German member, Boesebeck Droste, is in merger talks with Clifford Chance.
But although it is planning to open up in Paris, Travers is understood to be resisting the temptation to expand into other European countries by merging or forging close alliances with continental firms. Like Slaughter and May, with whom the firm shares a similar culture, Travers will attempt to forge referral agreements with other European firms which want to remain independent.
Travers is also understood to be sticking to its strategy not to merge with a UK firm. A source said that partners endorsed the firm's policy at a recent partners' meeting.
Travers' Isle of Man office closed last year.