Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner (BCLP) has officially launched in Hong Kong and Singapore, five months after the transatlantic merger of Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP) and US firm Bryan Cave went live.

The firm has now received regulatory approval to rebrand the two legacy firms as BCLP in Hong Kong and Singapore.

Haley Ho & Partners, BLP's Hong Kong associate firm, has merged into BCLP, which inherited its local firm status from legacy Bryan Cave.

The firm has also named real estate and hospitality partner Andrew MacGeoch – who joined BLP last year from Mayer Brown – as managing partner for the Hong Kong and Singapore offices. BLP's former Asia head Bob Charlton left for Addleshaw Goddard in late March, before the merger.

Hong Kong is the only market in Asia where both Bryan Cave and BLP had existing offices at the time of the merger. While both legacy firms' offices in the US and UK combined and adopted the BCLP brand on 3 April when the merger went live, the two Hong Kong offices have remained separate until now.

Bryan Cave's legacy Hong Kong office has two partners – Kristi Swartz and Nigel Binnersley – and three associates. Those lawyers have been working with BLP's local team, although a final decision on which office space the firm will retain has not yet been made.

The legacy BLP base in Beijing and Bryan Cave office in Shanghai are expected to officially become part of BCLP in four to six weeks .

BCLP has seen a string of post-merger partner departures recently in London, with four partners leaving in August, while Asia has been more quiet. In Asia, BCLP gained a partner and lost a partner, both in Singapore. Hospitality partner Koh Tien Gui joined BCLP in July from top Singaporean firm Rajah & Tann, while projects partner Nomita Nair left last month.