City firm Nicholson Graham & Jones plans to double the size of its London office within five years following a partner vote approving its merger with US firm Kirkpatrick & Lockhart last week.

The creation of a new firm, Kirkpatrick & Lockhart Nicholson Graham, on 1 January next year was unanimously approved by all 25 partners entitled to vote in the UK firm, and all 80 in the US.


Johns: approaches for merger
The US giant approached Nicholson Graham & Jones after merger talks broke down between the London firm and national firm Pinsents at the start of the year.


The London firm will use investment from its transatlantic partner to recruit in fields where the US firm already has an established practice, including funds work, real estate investment trusts, and advising companies on insurance coverage - where practices already acting for insurers are often conflicted out.


Further targets for expansion are projects and construction, mergers and acquisitions, corporate finance, real estate, international litigation and intellectual property.


The combined law firm will have some 950 lawyers, spread across ten US cities and London. Kirkpatrick & Lockhart chairman Peter Kalis will chair the merged firm, while Nicholson Graham & Jones's senior partner Michael Johns will keep his role in relation to the London office, and managing partner Tony Griffiths will become London administration partner. An agreement has been reached to keep the new name in full for several years, and there are no redundancy plans.


Mr Johns said: 'We decided two years ago that we wanted to be bigger, but after talks with Pinsents broke down, we had no stomach for another attempt to create a national firm.


'We received a number of approaches for a merger, because we had been in the public eye. Kirkpatrick & Lockhart are prepared to invest in us to help us grow - we plan to be about the same size as their Washington and New York offices, which also have plans to double.'