Paris, where the DAC Beachcroft office was registered as an AARPI

Insurance law specialist DAC Beachcroft has registered its Paris office as an independent organisation rather than a branch office, as part of its Brexit contingency planning, it has emerged.

The DACB office, which opened in January this year, was registered as an Association d'Avocats à Responsabilité Professionnelle Individuelle (AARPI), the French equivalent to a Limited Liability Partnership (LLP).

The structure means the French office is not a subsidiary of the U.K. firm and avoids any formal ties, instead relying on a trade understanding between the two offices.

According to company database Open Corporates, only two other U.K. law firms have registered their French offices as an AARPI structure since the Brexit referendum – DWF and Kennedys, which both entered the French market in 2017.

According to two people with knowledge of the situation at DACB, the office structure was chosen to avoid the possibility that some branch offices in the EU might not be able to operate in the event of a no-deal Brexit.

A partner at DAC Beachcroft told Legal Week that firms with branch offices are relying on a "grandfather clause" – a potential agreement between the French and English bars to maintain the pre-Brexit system, a situation that is by no means guaranteed.

Another person told Legal Week: "Depending on what happens, there is a strong possibility that branch offices of U.K. law firms will not be permitted to continue to operate in France."

The move is the latest by a U.K. law firm to prepare for the potential fallout of a no-deal Brexit.

Last week, it was revealed that Mishcon De Reya had established a trademark practice in the Netherlands to allow the firm to continue applying for trademarks and designs within the EU in the event of no deal.

Earlier this year, Quinn Emanuel partners in the firm's Brussels office also told Legal Week that they were in the process of taking up Belgian citizenship in order to continue practising law.