Ashurst follows BLG, Lovells and Links into LLP conversion

Ashurst will finally convert to an LLP this week after more than a year of consultation.

The 1 November conversion will see Ashurst join an ever-expanding list of firms that have decided to register as LLPs at Companies House, the official register of UK businesses.

Barlow Lyde & Gilbert, Lovells and Linklaters, for example, all converted to LLP status this year and release publicly available records and accounts.

Ashurst's first public accounts will be available in February 2009 at the latest.

Senior partner Geoffrey Green told The Lawyer: "It's the way the market's moved. Disclosure is no longer an issue. I don't think conversion will affect at all the way in which partners work together or with their clients."

Ashurst's entry into the roster of LLPs was delayed because of its presence in jurisdictions including Japan, Italy and, most recently, Sweden, where the rules either forbid LLP structures or there is complexity.

Green said the firm had also been waiting for added clarification on the corporation tax rules for LLPs in France, which emerged earlier this year.

The firm will be a worldwide LLP apart from in Japan and Italy. But partners there will still retain full voting rights and the same profit share as previously.