Linklaters and Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton have taken lead roles on Bank of America Merrill Lynch's $882m (£563m) sale of its non-US private banking operations to Swiss private bank Julius Baer Group.

The London office of Linklaters is advising the Swiss bank, which will increase its assets under management by 40% through the acquisition. The team is being led by London corporate partners Matt Bland and Dan Schuster-Woldan, who worked with lawyers from the magic circle firm's New York office including UK-qualified corporate partner Casper Lawson.

Bank of America has turned to Cleary for legal advice on the sale of its non-US wealth management business, which has roughly $84bn (£54bn) of assets under management -mostly from wealthy clients in the emerging economies.