Finnish firm Hannes Snellman has launched an office in Copenhagen with the hire of Bech-Bruun's head of M&A.

Philip Risbjorn has left the Danish firm to head up the new outfit for Hannes Snellman, with Amanda Tonsgaard, a director at private equity manager Capital Dynamics, also joining the new team.

Hannes Snellman M&A partner Mathias Lindqvist has relocated from Helsinki to Copenhagen to support the new office and two further hires are set to be announced in the coming weeks.

Hannes Snellman senior partner Johan Aalto said: "We set out with our Nordic strategy in 2008 with our Stockholm office, which was the obvious place to start, and due to its success we decided that now was the right time to take the next step with Copenhagen.

"We are looking to build a critical mass of around 50 lawyers in Denmark over the next three to four years and will continue on with our strategy, looking to Oslo as the next target."

Aalto added that while Oslo was the next step in the Nordic strategy, it would depend on finding the right lawyers in the region before considering a launch.

The firm currently has offices in Helsinki, Moscow, St Petersburg, Stockholm and Copenhagen, and has set out its intentions to become the first Pan-Nordic law firm.