Engineering company Weir Group has launched its first European and global panels with just two firms on each.

Burness Paul and CMS Cameron McKenna will advise Weir's European and UK businesses, while Baker & McKenzie and Herbert Smith Freehills (HSF) have been appointed to Weir's global panel, advising on the business' US and global operations.

The appointments mark the business' first official legal panels.

Previously, the FTSE 250 company has used a raft of firms for advice. It has turned to Maclay Murray & Spens, Pinsent Masons and Burness Paull in Scotland, Bakers and HSF in England and Jones Day and King & Spalding in the US and other territories.

The introduction of formalised panels follows the retirement of general counsel Keith Ruddock at the end of 2015.

Ruddock joined the Glasgow-headquartered engineering company as GC in May 2012, following the retirement of Weir Group legal and commercial director Alan Mitchelson.

Weir, a provider of high-pressure pumping equipment to mining, oil and gas companies, has been particularly active in the US shale gas market in recent years.

In 2012, it acquired onshore oil and gas drilling company Mathena in a