Beiten Burkhardt is to shut down its Leipzig base – its second office closure in as many months – the independent German firm announced today (28 March).

Corporate partner Peter Krueger, who headed the office, is to join the local arm of accountancy giant KPMG, along with a team of five associates.

Beiten – the local ally of City firm Berwin Leighton Paisner – was one of the few German commercial firms to operate an office in East Germany away from Berlin.

The closure comes after the firm last month announced it was pulling the plug on its Cologne office, with the majority of the team relocating to its Duesseldorf arm.

Beiten still has a wide domestic network with further bases in Berlin, Frankfurt, Munich and Nuremburg, as well as overseas operations in Belgium, China, Poland, Russia and the Ukraine.

Labour law partner Hans-Peter Mechlem, who sits on the firm's management committee, said: "Leipzig did not fit in with our strategy but there will be no more closures now. We have finished the restructuring."