Norton Rose follows magic circle's lead with Casablanca launch
Norton Rose has announced that it is opening in Casablanca, following a trend set by Allen & Overy (A&O) and Clifford Chance.
The office will open in September and follows on from the firm’s merger with South African firm Deneys Reitz, which went live on 1 June.
The firm already has offices in Cape Town, Durban and Johannesburg and an associate office in Dar Es Salaam.
The Casablanca office will be led by Paris partner Alain Malek, who will split his time between France and Morocco. Of counsel Godefroy Le Mintier and Anne-Laure Bernard-Bouissières and six associates will also divide their time between the two offices.
Earlier this week Clifford Chance (25 July 2011) announced plans to open in the Moroccan city, hot on the heels of A&O (20 July 2011), which revealed its Casablanca launch last week.
Norton Rose deputy managing partner Tim Marsden said in a statement: “The Casablanca proposal isn’t in reaction to recent market announcements, but has been some months in development.
“This move is not accelerated but is a natural progression of our number one Africa business. We’re in a unique position to develop Africa’s international business ties with the rest of the world.”
Readers' comments (8)
Rick | 28-Jul-2011 12:15 pm
A&O got the only team worth having there. Good luck to norton rose!
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Anonymous | 28-Jul-2011 12:47 pm
Bizzare choice! Will have a to seriously undercut fees to make this work!
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Rob | 28-Jul-2011 2:50 pm
The firms can expect payment in sacks of pistacchios. Hope their leases aren't too expensive.
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Jackie Chan | 28-Jul-2011 4:29 pm
There's something odd about this Casablanca stuff. It just seems an incredible coincidence that three major UK-based global law firms open up in a city hitherto ignored by most law firms within a week of one another.
What's going on?
Has the king or government or whatever given them a ton of money or some other major incentive?
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Anonymous | 28-Jul-2011 11:15 pm
Despite a relatively good situation, the market is certainly not ready to absorb three big players. I guess NR will take the lead consideirng the local's market desire for low rates even if it comes with cheap service.
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Ilsa | 29-Jul-2011 10:33 am
I was also thinking it seems a bit of a coincidence that there is a rush on to open in Casablanca. Surely this should be looked into? Also, if there are inducements like with the move to Northern Ireland surely this is now not allowed under new Bribery Act provisions?
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Anonymous | 29-Jul-2011 3:02 pm
"Norton Rose takes magic circle's lead..."
Does that mean that the magic circle took Eversheds' lead as they opened here a number of months ago and were the first big firm to do so I think...?
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Anonymous | 7-Aug-2011 6:29 pm
When firms claim to have opened offices it more often than not really means they have a couple of partners and a local hire holed up in a hotel room somewhere ready to do business.
The term 'office' is therefore a major overstatement of the facts.
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