City firm Kennedys has given up the fight to use its name in Hong Kong, four months after it took lawyers from the Wilde Sapte to set up its first office there.

Senior partner Nick Thomas said that the Hong Kong Law Society is sticking to regulations requiring law firms to be named after current partners.

'That can be waived if reasonable cause is shown that the name is used all the time,' he explained.

'What we have in Hong Kong is a Kennedys branch office.'The firm applied 'in good time' for the waiver, said Mr Thomas, but that the a Hong Kong Law Society committee, made up of local practices including international firms, turned down the application.

Kennedys appealed against the decision, but this was turned down earlier this year.

Normally, City firms have no problem being granted a waiver.The firm has been forced to ditch the Kennedys brand in Hong Kong, and call itself by the name of existing partners Skrine Thomas Sharrock.

It has been named after former Wilde Sapte insurance partner Rupert Skrine, who moved to Kennedys with three assistants in February when Wilde Sapte's Hong Kong office closed, senior partner Nick Thomas and partner Chris Sharrock.Mr Thomas added: 'We are the first law firm that has been forced to change our name in Hong Kong.

The next thing to do would be to go for judicial review but we took the view that it would be difficult for our lawyers working there.

I was prepared to do it but I don't have to face them every day.'Kennedys set up its own Hong Kong office on 1 February, after ending its association with local firm TS Tong.Anne Mizzi