Mergers & Associations

Kennedys is merging with marine boutique Waltons & Morse to boost its City presence. The tie-up will increase Kennedys’ London headcount by 28 lawyers including five partners, and follows a number of mergers made by the firm to expand internationally, particularly in Latin America. All of Waltons & Morse’s lawyers will sit in Kennedys’ new international marine team, headed up by the boutique’s managing partner Chris Dunn. The new additions will expand Kennedys offering in the marine and shipping sector, with lawyers advising on insurance, and casualty and liability issues, as well as political risk. The merger will go live in November and all staff from Waltons & Morse will move over to Kennedys’ London office by the end of the year. Kennedys has been pushing for significant expansion across Latin America and Europe this year, with the firm opening four new offices in recent months. It launched new offices in Brazil and Peru as well as Chile and Columbia, while also merging with its Danish associated firm Erritzoe and signing up firms in Norway and Sweden as new associates

Mori Hamada & Matsumoto (MHM), one of Japan’s largest law firms, has acquired leading firm Chandler & Thong-ek (C&T) in Thailand as part of a push into South East Asia. The acquisition comes just over a year after the Japanese firm opened its third ASEAN office in Bangkok. The office is located in the same building as Chandler & Thong-ek and the two firms have been working closely on Thai related legal matters, as well as exchanging secondees. It marks the first time a major Japanese firm has expanded overseas through a merger.

C&T is a well-known full-service outlet in Thailand and has a strong Myanmar office known as Myanmar Legal Services. Its Yangon office has hosted a number of secondees from leading international firms, such as Allen & Overy and Herbert Smith Freehills. MHM expects the integration to be completed in January 2017. The combined Thai operation will be branded as Chandler MHM Limited and led by MHM corporate partner Satoshi Kawai and C&T managing partner Niwes Phancharoenworakul.

The Thai merger will add 45 lawyers to MHM’s Thai practice and result in the Japanese firm having a 60-lawyer team outside of its home market.

The second largest South Korean firm by revenue, Bae Kim & Lee has also recently launched an office in Yangon, its seventh overseas and third in South East Asia.