Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner (BCLP) has targeted its primary global growth areas following the completion of its merger a week ago.
The firm officially went live on 3 April following a partner vote in late February after four months of negotiations between legacy Berwin Leighton Paisner and its US counterpart.
BCLP sees its prime growth spots as Paris and Germany, as well as boosting its bench strength across legacy Bryan Cave’s domestic US market.
The firm has also outlined four global departments which will act as its primary service lines of corporate, finance, litigation and corporate risk, and real estate.
Global co-chairs Lisa Mayhew and Terry Pritchard say that the firm will be looking to add primarily along the real estate lines while making use of legacy Bryan Cave’s existing corporate clients to expand its offering.
Data gathered for The Lawyer Global Real Estate 50 shows that the West Coast of the US is now the primary real estate market in the country and Mayhew and Pritchard indicated that that would be factor in the firm’s US growth.
Speaking to The Lawyer ahead of the merger, Pritchard said: “I would say that our capability across the US is strong, but could be stronger. We are certainly interested in taking a look at which markets fit best within our current platform and adding some real estate expertise in those locations. In part, we think that’s gonig to be helped now that we’ve combined with BLP, which is strong on real estate.
“We expect to attract very strong players in the real estate space where we don’t have enough strength.”
Gains are also being targeted in Paris which has been a particular hotspot for a number of real estate-heavy firms in the past year, including CMS Cameron McKenna Nabarro Olswang, Dentons and Hogan Lovells.
Pre-merger, legacy Bryan Cave had an office in the city while legacy Berwin Leighton Paisner had one lawyer registered to the Parisian Bar.
Mayhew and Pritchard confirmed that the French capital would be an interest for BCLP to expand its real estate presence. BCLP currently has no real estate capabilities but will be looking to build out this proposition.
Growth is also expected across its Asia Pacific offices though the firm recently lost its Asia head Bob Charlton; his replacement is yet to be announced. Charlton is understood to have left the firm last month.
