London firms join employment experts in global alliance

London law firms Lewis Silkin and Sacker & Partners have signed up to an international alliance in a bid to enhance their presence overseas, it emerged this week.

Lewis Silkin's employment, labour and benefits department and pensions specialist Sacker & Partners joined the existing 14 members of Ius Laboris, a grouping of firms specialising in pensions, employment and employee benefits.

The alliance, which was launched at the beginning of last year, enables 830 lawyers in more than 38 cities across Europe and North and South America to share information.

Lewis Silkin's co-head of employment, James Davies, said previous informal arrangements with firms had proved unsatisfactory as problems cropped up when circumstances changed, for example, through mergers.

The move came in the same week that 40-member network Euro-Link for Lawyers signed an international strategic alliance with the 47-strong Independent Network of Auditors and Accountants (INNA), one of the first of its kind at international level.

Paula Rohan