Building on existing relationships, Cambridge-based Mills & Reeve has signed affiliation agreements with Graf von Westphalen of Germany and Van Benthem & Keulen of the Netherlands. Mills & Reeve has been working with the firms for more than a decade on a broad range of transactions including M&A, private equity, flotations, corporate finance, employment law and commercial disputes, providing clients with a seamless service across the three jurisdictions.

Expansion plans

The expansionist move demonstrates the firm’s plan to flex its muscle across the globe - and it is expanding at pace having worked with clients in more than 75 jurisdictions in the last 12 months. Graf von Westphalen is one of Germany’s largest independent law firms with five offices across Germany as well as branches in Brussels, Istanbul and Shanghai. Van Benthem & Keulen is particularly well-known for its IURA ACTUA training programme for general counsel.

Important steps

Tom Pickthorn, head of international at Mills & Reeve, said: ‘Our international strategy is driven by a fundamental ambition - to provide our clients with expert legal support wherever they are doing business in the world. The affiliations with our friends in Germany and the Netherlands are important steps forward to achieving this strategy. With the uncertainties and opportunities arising from Brexit, it is more important than ever that we can provide our clients a seamless service in these key markets. The affiliation we signed in 2014 with FIDAL, the largest law firm in France, has already shown us how much our clients value this approach.’