Guildford: Charles Russell's merger with Speechly Bircham gets green light

Law firm Charles Russell, which has offices in Guildford, will merge with Speechly Bircham to create one of the world's leading private wealth and business law firms.

The partners of both Speechly Bircham and Charles Russell voted overwhelmingly in favour of the merger. The new firm of Charles Russell Speechlys will have 170 partners, a total of 500 lawyers and combined revenues of £135m, placing it well within the UK top 30. Charles Russell Speechlys will open for business on November 1, 2014.

The firm will be one of a small number of major international law firms which combine a pre-eminent private wealth practice with a significant business law capacity - offering an integrated service for wealthy individuals, family offices, wealth managers and large, privately held businesses throughout the UK and across the world.

This integrated service reflects the depth of the new firm’s business law practice - with significant strengths in the real estate and construction sectors, transactional expertise across the financial services sector and specialist employment, intellectual property and commercial teams advising public companies in sectors such as retail and leisure, sports and TMT.

Structured around four key Divisions (Business Services, Litigation and Dispute Resolution, Private Client and Real Estate and Construction), the new firm will offer a powerful combination of commercial, business, private wealth, built environment, family and philanthropic experience.

Charles Russell Speechlys will be headquartered in London with a network of offices in some of Europe and the Gulf’s main wealth and business centres. Long-standing relationships and networks throughout the United States, Africa and the Caribbean will extend the geographical reach of the new firm. All clients will benefit from access to integrated advice from a single platform.

“Our determination”, says Christopher Page, a highly rated private client lawyer and senior partner of Charles Russell, “is to deliver enduring value for our clients by giving grounded, personal advice from all our UK offices as well as from our offices in Europe and the Gulf.”

“We know that our clients will find our balanced and integrated expertise and experience, provided efficiently and cost-effectively, a compelling combination.

“One of the many things we share with Speechly Bircham is our reading of private wealth in the fullest sense of that term. The beauty of the new combination is that it gives us real scale - and the ability to invest - across our practice groups. It will enable us to address the evolving needs of clients within what we describe as the ‘wealth pyramid’.”

James Carter, a corporate tax lawyer who is currently managing partner of Speechly Bircham, concurs: “At the apex of that pyramid sit high-net-worth individuals and families, many of whom own substantial companies, commercial real estate or residential property. Those assets are often held and managed through sophisticated structures. At this mid-level too sit the specialist asset managers and service providers whom we also serve as clients. At the base of the pyramid sit the trading companies, the investment funds and the personal assets.

“At all three levels, there is a need for advisory, transactional and contentious services. Many of these services fall way outside the traditional definition of private client services. We will provide them on a fully integrated basis.”