No merger in sight

The planned merger between UK firm Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP) and US firm Greenberg Traurig has come to a shuddering halt after the two firms decided there was not enough common ground for any deal to take place.

Any merger would have created a practice with over 2500 lawyers, as Greenberg Traurig have 1950 practicing lawyers, and BLP have over 850.

But just a month after news of the original talks surfaced on news channels, sources from both firms have confirmed that there is to be no deal in the near future.

Lisa Mayhew, who is a BLP managing partner, stated that: “BLP has a clear strategy for growth which is why it considered this opportunity in the first place. There was not one single reason for both sides to decide that talks should conclude but basically we could not find enough common ground.”

Greenberg Traurig representatives stated that whilst they were impressed with the core real estate practices at BLP, and whilst they have a great deal of respect for the firm as a whole, they did not want to risk their cultural and financial priorities for what was described as a fairytale to “fall in love” with.

Richard Rosenbaum, the Greenberg Traurig executive chair, concluded that the firm have: “added many shareholders, practices and offices in the last months and years and must intensely focus on integration and execution, including our continued build-out of a first-class London office of an appropriate size in today’s world and the number one global real estate practice.”

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