By Gillian Tan
U.K.-headquartered Herbert Smith and Australia’s Freehills have announced the creation of Herbert Smith Freehills through a full equity merger which will have a single profit pool from its target launch date of October 1.
- News Limited/Supplied
- Freehills managing partner Gavin Bell
The firm will have 2,8000 lawyers including 460 partners across 20 offices in Australia, Asia, Europe, the United Kingdom and the Middle East.
Herbert Smith Freehills will be led by joint chief executives David Willis and Gavin Bell, current managing partners of Herbert Smith and Freehills respectively.
“We are excited about bringing together two pre-eminent law firms to create a new and distinctive global law firm. We share with Freehills a strong belief that over the next few years the market for premium legal services will become increasingly dominated by a small number of truly global firms. This merger will therefore put us in a strong position to provide clients with the single global offering they increasingly demand,” Mr. Willis said in a statement.