Kidd Rapinet seals international tie-up

London-based firm Kidd Rapinet is merging with CY Jacob & Co, an international law firm with an associate office in Tel Aviv.

Kidd Rapinet, a 41-partner firm which has nine offices in the Thames Valley in addition to the London office, is also appointing Paul Taylor as its new senior partner.

Taylor replaces Andy Lewis who will become a consultant to the firm on 1 May.

CY Jacob & Co is run in London by senior partner Mark Jacob.

The associate office in Israel, Yossifoff Cohen & Co, is staffed by six partners and 10 lawyers.

Taylor is particularly keen to bring some youth to Kidd Rapinet's partnership and to add Jacob's commercial property experience.

He also wants to broaden the firm's international scope by tapping into the substantial IP and IT client base of Yossifoff Cohen & Co.

Jacob says it was becoming increasingly difficult for him to service all the UK needs of the firm's Israeli clients.

"A merger was seen as a way of speeding up the process of expansion and to enable us to offer our Israeli clients a full range of services," says Jacob.

"Last year Yossifoff Cohen & Co acted on the sale of IBM's Tel Aviv headquarters for $50 million (£31.25m) in one of the largest property deals ever in Israel."

Senior partner in Israel Yoram Yossifoff will become a consultant to Kidd Rapinet.

Kidd Rapinet's office in Haslemere, Surrey, also recently merged, with Coopers, a Surrey firm that specialises in personal injury, matrimonial and employment matters.