Osborne Clarke is planning to launch in Paris later this year, with the move coming as the firm finalises details of its planned mergers in Spain and Italy.

The top 50 UK firm is in talks to open in France either through a local merger or team hire, with the discussions coming after it broke off its alliance with French outfit Stehlin & Associes, Dutch firm Ploum Lodder Princen and Belgium's De Wolf & Partners in March this year  to focus on building its own international presence.

Managing partner Simon Beswick (pictured) is working on the deal alongside head of corporate Adrian Bott.

The launch will take Osborne Clarke's presence in continental Europe to four countries, assuming planned mergers with former alliance partners Osborne Clarke Spain and Italian firm SLA go live as expected next month, as it already has an existing arm in Cologne, Germany.

The firm initially asked all five of its former alliance partners if they wanted to merge but only Italy and Spain took up the offer.

Early July is the expected date for a partner vote on the mergers, which will be carried out under a Swiss verein structure; however, Beswick said the deals were still on track to happen before the end of July, with the focus moving to Paris and other jurisdictions after this point.

Beswick commented: "The Paris office should eventually be a mirror of our service offerings elsewhere. When we've developed our offering in Paris we'll stop for a breather. We have opportunities elsewhere but we're not engaging with them for the moment."