Pinsent Curtis doubles London presencewith shock Biddle merger announcementNational law firm Pinsent Curtis has unveiled a surprise merger with London firm Biddle to produce the 18th biggest practice in the UK.The firm will be called Pinsent Curtis Biddle, with 157 partners and a total legal staff of 518.With offices in London, Leeds and Birmingham, 128 partners, 264 assistants and 61 trainees, Pinsents is more than eight times the size of Biddle, which has 29 partners, 28 assistants and eight trainees.

The merger doubles the size of Pinsents' London office at a stroke.

The management of the firm reflects the disparity.

Pinsents' national managing partner David Ryan and senior partner Julian Tonks will keep their positions in the new firm, but they are joined on its management board by Biddle managing partner Martin Lane, who has also been appointed managing partner of the joint London office.Biddle senior partner Martin Winter will return to practice.

The only other member of Biddle to join the management team is Chris Mullen, the head of pensions, who becomes national pensions head.

His appointment reflects the importance of pensions to Pinsent Curtis Biddle; both constituent firms are noted pensions players.The firm also highlighted its enhanced private equity capability in the light of the merger; it will have ten partners devoted to the sector.

The new firm will follow Pinsents' so-called 'chosen markets' strategy - within three to five years, the firm intends to attain a leading position in nine fields of specialism: financial institutions, foreign controlled companies, insurance, major projects, pensions, private equity, property, public limited companies, and technology and media.

Mr Tonks said: 'The ability to offer clients genuine strength in depth across a range of disciplines is critical to success in our chosen markets.'The merger with Biddle gives us the necessary combination of critical mass in the City coupled with market leading expertise.

Biddle was our preferred partner because of the very strong fit with our strategy.'A spokeswoman said both partnerships had voted 'extremely strongly' in favour of the merger.

Jeremy Fleming