Denton Hall has set up an office in Almaty, Kazakhstan, after acquiring the only foreign office of US firm Welborn Sullivan Meck & Tooley.

The firm has also applied for a licence to open up in Tashkent in Uzbekistan. US lawyer Marla Valdez, who set up Denver-based Welborn Sullivan's office in 1993, will be managing partner in Almaty.

The office has 13 lawyers practising local and US law and will specialise in oil, gas and mining. A major client in the natural resource-rich region is the Australian Western Mining Corporation. English-qualified lawyers will also be going out to the Almaty office to help with international law.