Walkers and Mourant hold merger talks
Two legal giants Walkers and Mourant are engaged in merger talks. If the talks are successfully completed, the world’s biggest offshore law firm can be created.
If Walkers of the Cayman Islands and Mourant du Feu & Jeune of the Channel Islands complete the merger, the new firm would employ more than 300 lawyers, which will make the combined entity far larger than the current offshore leader, Maples and Calder, another Cayman firm employing 150 lawyers.
The merged companies would not only have a considerable presence in the Cayman Islands (where Walkers is currently building a new headquarters), but also be based in the major financial centres of London, Hong Kong, New York and Dubai.
According to Walkers managing partner Grant Stein, talks with Mourant commenced in May 2007. However, he said that a merger is an option but this stage has not been approached so far. He said that at the moment the two companies are “getting to know each other’s cultures and the synergies between the firms”.
The head of Mourant’s Cayman office Charles Quin refused to comment on the merger talks.