Weil Gotshal & Manges is set to be invited to tender for the Royal Bank of Scotland's (RBS') legal panel next year after completing its first-ever mandate for the bank.

The US law firm's London office advised the bank on the $300m (£191m) sale of its shares in luggage manufacturer Samsonite, which floated in Hong Kong in June.

Weil Gotshal fielded a team led by London corporate partner Mark Soundy on the transaction, which marks the US firm's first piece of work for the bank.

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer advised Samsonite on the deal alongside Beijing's Haiwen & Partners and Luxembourg-based Oostvogels Pfister Feyten, which advised on Chinese and Luxembourg law respectively.

Weil Gotshal's instruction is unusual for RBS, which tends to instruct members of its 18-strong panel.

An in-house lawyer at RBS said: "Though the firm is not formally on RBS' panel, Weil Gotshal was selected due to its expertise in the field. It has made several significant hires in recent months – this has improved its offering and could land it a permanent spot on the panel, especially in the restructuring space."

RBS is set to review its overall roster of law firms next year, with firms to be invited to pitch in the summer and the new panel to take effect from 
1 January 2013.

Jones Day is the only US firm on the roster after being added in 2006, but the firm has since seen restructuring head Adam Plainer and fellow restructuring partner Paul Bromfield join Weil Gotshal earlier this year. Linklaters banking partner Stephen Lucas, who joined Weil Gotshal's City base last month, also has ties with RBS.