Trowers brings in Eversheds hire and merges with Egyptian ally

Trowers & Hamlins has merged with its Egyptian alliance firm Nour Law Office and hired the head of Eversheds' associated firm in Riyadh in a bid to bolster its presence in the region.

The merger between Trowers' three-partner Cairo office and its nine-lawyer alliance firm took effect on 1 January, with the new firm to be known as Nour Law Office, managed by Trowers & Hamlins.

Trowers' local office head Sara Hinton has become managing partner of the merged firm, with Nour Law Office's sole partner, Mohamed Nour, taking up a role as senior partner.

The merger comes after Trowers brought in the head of Eversheds' associated office in Riyadh to strengthen its corporate practice. Hany Kassem joined Trowers last month from associated firm Hani Qurashi, which is now looking for a replacement office head.

The Egyptian merger brings together Trowers' non-contentious M&A, projects and oil and gas infrastructure practices with Nour's dispute resolution practice.

Hinton told Legal Week: "We have had an association with Mohamed Nour and his firm for over a decade now and know each other extremely well. He was looking to move things forward with his firm and we decided that it was the perfect opportunity to fully merge our operations in†Egypt."

She added: "In order to win major legal mandates†from within Egypt you really need to have†local†expertise and we felt that by merging we would be placing ourselves in the best position not only for work in Egypt but†also for†opportunities in the surrounding regions."

The news comes after Trowers boosted its Middle East practice last May after launching in Jeddah, marking its second office in Saudi Arabia alongside its existing Riyadh base. The new office opened in association with existing alliance firm Feras Al Shawaf Law Office.