King & Wood Mallesons (KWM) partners will vote tomorrow (31 July) on its keenly anticipated tie-up with UK outfit SJ Berwin.

The firm's Hong Kong and Australia partnerships will hold two separate meetings tomorrow – for which two hours have been allotted – starting simultaneously at 1pm Hong Kong time and 3pm Sydney time, at which they will cast their votes.

Partners will not be able to vote at a later stage, but have been allowed to send their views in advance.

The firm, which operates three separate partnerships in China, Hong Kong and Australia, is understood to have given its China partners a longer timeframe to gather opinions, but all votes are required to be handed in by the 3pm Beijing/Hong Kong deadline tomorrow.

Should the tie-up go ahead, partners say the SJ Berwin name – which dates back to 1982 when the firm was founded by Stanley Berwin – will be lost, with the King & Wood Mallesons brand applied across the business.

In juridictions where both firms have offices, it is likely that lawyers will move into whoever has the bigger and more established premises. In Hong Kong, China and Australia, it is expected that SJ Berwin will move into KWM offices, while in London and across Europe, KWM lawyers are set to move into SJ Berwin's existing premises.

For the merger to go ahead, it will need 75% partner approval from the KWM side.

Meanwhile, the vote at SJ Berwin is also nearing completion, after the UK firm held a partner meeting on 17 July giving partners seven days' notice ahead of the opening of the vote, which was expected to run to the end of the month.

Market sources have suggested the deal faces the most resistance in Australia, after legacy Mallesons previously held merger talks with much larger UK outfits such as magic circle firms Linklaters and Clifford Chance.

KWM, which was was formed via the merger of China's King & Wood and Australia's Mallesons Stephen Jaques in March last year, also recently held discussions with Wong Partnership about a tie up, but these ended in the spring when the Singapore firm chose to remain independent.

KWM declined to comment.

Related: