Mills & Reeve signs alliances with German and Dutch firms amid Brexit uncertainties
Firm enters into formal agreements with German firm Graf von Westphalen and Dutch firm Van Benthem & Keulen
December 08, 2017 at 06:41 AM
3 minute read
UK top 50 firm Mills & Reeve has signed formal alliances with German firm Graf von Westphalen and Dutch firm Van Benthem & Keulen.
Mills & Reeve has worked with the two firms for about 10 years but has now formalised the relationships, which already involve joint legal training programmes and regular secondee exchanges.
The firm now has three such arrangements with European firms, having previously entered into an alliance with Paris-headquartered firm Fidal in 2014.
Graf von Westphalen has five German offices across Berlin, Duesseldorf, Frankfurt, Hamburg and Munich as well as outposts in Istanbul, Shanghai and Brussels. Van Benthem & Keulen is headquartered in Utrecht and is member of SCG Legal, an international network of 148 law firms in 82 countries.
The firms have previously worked alongside one another on M&A, private equity, flotations, corporate finance, employment law and commercial disputes issues.
Head of international at Mills & Reeve Tom Pickthorn (pictured) told Legal Week: "We have worked with both firms, but have not been public about that apart from on a deal-by-deal basis. We wanted to go public so our clients here know they can come to us for their legal needs wherever they are. We think it is better for clients to have full-service local experts rather than an English firm with two men, a dog and a brass plaque."
He added that a key factor for the deals was a rise in client demand for legal advice on Brexit-related issues. With the UK set to leave the European Union in 2019, some of the firm's European clients are concerned about how they will operate in the UK going forward.
"Most of our clients are internationally focused and are concerned by the uncertainties of Brexit. They are looking for more support in Europe and secondly, since Brexit, we have seen an increase in our European clients looking here. Just as our UK clients have concerns about how they will trade in Europe, Europeans have the same concerns about how they will trade in the UK."
In the firm's most recent financial results, revenue increased by 6.9% to a record high of £93.2m. Profit per equity partner also grew from £374,000 to £403,000 – a 7.8% increase. This followed a merger with with real estate, projects and construction firm Maxwell Winward, however this had no bearing on the 2016-17 results.
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