The impact of Britain’s exit from the EU on the international strategy of City firms is still largely obscure – those announcing Dublin launches since the referendum have sought to play down the role of Brexit in their decision.
But Bristowsʼ joint managing partner Marek Petecki is clear: the rationale for launching the firm’s first international office in its 180-year history ‘is about addressing the challenges of Brexit’.
The technology and life sciences specialist will open in Brussels in March 2018, giving its EU regulatory and competition lawyers a base for representing international clients. Best known for its top-ranked IP litigation work, Bristows advises clients – 80% of them from outside the UK – on EU matters, including competition and regulatory law, trade marks and data privacy.
These sectors involve around 50 of its 186 lawyers and are all expected to benefit from the work coming out of the new office.
‘We want to be able to continue to offer that capability, regardless of what arrangements there are from March 2019,’ continued Petecki. ‘After Brexit, the UK will naturally be more isolated and distant from what happens in the EU. We want to make sure we are still there and credibly tell clients we are on top of all this.’
‘If there is hard Brexit, we could see an acceleration of what we do in Brussels.’
Marek Petecki, Bristows
While the firm is currently not planning to recruit any new partners to work there full-time, competition partner Stephen Smith will manage the new base and seek Brussels Bar registration to cover both the UK and Belgium, along with the firm’s other two competition partners, Sophie Lawrance and Pat Treacy.
The firm started discussing opening in one of the EU member states immediately after Britain voted to quit the bloc in June 2016, choosing Brussels because it gives it the chance to interact more closely with the European institutions and move easily across the continent.
It will initially have around half a dozen competition lawyers rotating between London and Brussels but Petecki said: ‘If there is hard Brexit, we could see an acceleration of what we do in Brussels.’
Bristows is the second City-focused firm to launch in the Belgian capital in 2017 after Macfarlanes opened there at the beginning of the year with a competition trio hired from King & Wood Mallesons’ failing European arm.
Meanwhile, Simmons & Simmons and Pinsent Masons both announced plans to open outposts in Dublin in 2017, but denied their decision was a reaction to Brexit. Covington & Burling also launched a life sciences team in Ireland in September.