MAQS looks for Baltic rim supremacy with merger

Pinsents’ Scandinavian ally Magnusson Wahlin Qvist Stanbrook (MAQS) has merged with niche Swedish outfit Bergling & Partners as part of a push to dominate the Baltic rim.

Bergling, a six-lawyer specialist business law firm, will be integrated into MAQS’s Stockholm headquarters and is intended to bolster its corporate capability, with post-merger revenue growth predicted at 20 per cent.

MAQS currently operates offices in Denmark, Estonia, Sweden and Poland, but is aiming to launch in Latvia, Lithuania and Moscow by January 2005.

The scheme would give 50-partner MAQS an impressive foothold in the emerging Baltic rim.

Although Finnish big-hitter Roschier Holmberg has already established an alliance with firms in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, and other local firms have their own Baltic alliances in place, no international firm has launched such a targeted assault on the region.

Established in 2002 after a merger between Danish outfit Qvist Stanbrook and Swedish firm Magnusson Wahlin, MAQS has progressed to become a leading light in the Nordic legal market, boasting 128 lawyers.

The firm forged its strategic alliance and an exclusive referral system with Pinsents in 2000.