Pinsent Masons and Salans have launched a strategic alliance, with Pinsents set to pull out of its international network, PMLG, as a result.

The alliance, which went live yesterday (1 June) and was agreed last week, will see the firms conducting joint pitches for cross-border work and committing to joint training and secondments, in a bid to access new clients and boost their international scope.

Both firms have been in discussions for months about how they will work together and are believed to have considered merging before agreeing to the referral relationship.

The non-exclusive alliance gives Pinsents access to Salans' 21 global offices, including a significant presence in Russia and Eastern Europe. The national firm will therefore wind down its involvement in the PMLG network, which was launched in 2006 and comprises firms in Austria, Estonia, France, Germany, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania and Turkey.

A steering committee has been set up comprising Pinsents' senior partner Chris Mullen, managing partner David Ryan and corporate head Gareth Edwards as well as Salans' global chairman Stephen Finch, international development partner Roger Abrahams and global managing partner Dariusz Oleszczuk.

The committee is expected to expand as new areas of development are indentified.

Mullen (pictured) told Legal Week: "The principle benefit is to be able to provide greater international reach for our clients and to access a new range of potential clients for both businesses. We have been aiming at growing our geographical scope as part of our strategy and to do that with Salans is very exciting."

Finch, who identified Pinsents' presence in the Asia-Pacific region and the Middle East as an initial attraction, added: "[Pinsents'] sector experience complements ours, and we will now be able to offer much greater resources across key industries and jurisdictions, especially in the UK, the Gulf region and Asia."

Pinsents has 1,200 lawyers across seven offices in the UK as well as Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Dubai. Salans has 750 lawyers globally. The pair have worked together in the past and last year Salans hired the co-head of Pinsents' China corporate practice, Andrew Liu, to lead its new Hong Kong office. In 2007 Salans launched in Spain after taking over Pinsents' local ally – Masons Buxeda Menchen.