Alexandrine Armstrong-Cerfontaine and David Evans, with Goodwin Procter. Alexandrine Armstrong-Cerfontaine, left, and David Evans, right, with Goodwin Procter. (Courtesy photos)

Goodwin Procter has opened a new office in Luxembourg – a response to the impact that Brexit has already had on the investment funds business.

While the firm has had a London-based Luxembourg desk in place for several years, partner Alexandrine Armstrong-Cerfontaine will now split time between London and Luxembourg.

"We're seeing the looming Brexit spectre driving more movement in the private investment universe towards Luxembourg and away from the U.K.," said Goodwin's European chairman David Evans. "There's a nervousness and a fear that as the U.K. leaves the EU, the ability for European funds to be housed and managed in the U.K. will diminish, and it has been diminished over the last three to four years."

Evans added that while several years ago roughly 20% of European funds vehicles were managed in Luxembourg, that number now is closer to 80%.

Goodwin first established its London-based Luxembourg desk in August 2017, when it hired  Armstrong-Cerfontaine as part of a large private investment funds team from King & Wood Mallesons. She had served as managing partner of KWM's Luxembourg office until the firm shuttered that office as it went into bankruptcy.

As the Luxembourg desk grew in London and the terrain of the funds business continued to shift under continued uncertainties over Brexit, a formal office in the Grand Duchy made more and more sense.

Along with Armstrong-Cerfontaine, the office opens with two associates and two trainees. But Evans anticipates additional growth.

"I can see a Luxembourg office getting to 10 to 15 attorneys, and sit that alongside a Luxembourg desk in London of a similar size – that rounds out a significant Luxembourg capability," he said.

Prior to Goodwin's arrival, Dechert had been the sole U.S.-based firm with a Luxembourg office, which it opened in 2001. International vereins Dentons, Baker McKenzie, DLA Piper and Norton Rose Fulbright also operate in the country, as do a number of Magic Circle and other London firms.

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