BLP is a leading international law firm with over 820 fee-earners, including more than 215 partners. It has offices in Abu Dhabi, Brussels, Moscow, Paris and Singapore, and has announced plans to open in Hong Kong to serve its clients in the Greater China region.
The firm’s expertise covers all aspects of commercial law; competition, EU and trade; corporate finance; employment and pensions; finance; funds and financial services; intellectual property; litigation and dispute resolution; projects; real estate, planning and construction; regulatory and compliance; restructuring and insolvency; and tax.
The firm: In the last financial year, BLP was the fastest growing of the top 20 UK law firms and 16 leading individuals joined the firm as part of an ambitious programme to recruit top-ranked legal experts in key areas. Its real estate capabilities are now the most highly regarded in the UK, it has the largest and broadest tax team in the City, and it further strengthened its teams in corporate finance, competition and trade, employment, finance, financial services, and litigation and dispute resolution.
BLP is also renowned for responding creatively to the challenges clients face. For example, Lawyers on Demand provides a high-quality pool of flexible, freelance lawyers offered to clients at low cost as and when needed, while Managed Legal Services enables clients to use BLP to manage their legal needs under a long-term, fixed-price deal with guaranteed levels of service.
In recognition of this, in 2010 BLP became the only law firm to be named Law Firm of the Year for both Legal Week and The Lawyer in the same year. It has also won the Financial Times Innovative Lawyers Client Service Award twice and Goltsblat BLP, the firm’s Moscow office, was named International Law Office of the Year 2010 at the Legal BusinessAwards.
International: As well as its own offices, BLP has strong relationships with a non-exclusive panel of the leading independent local law firms around the world, almost half of which are holders of a law firm of the year or equivalent title in their own countries. Across Europe, these relationships enable BLP to call upon 230 tier-one ranked practices – four times as many as any ‘global’ firm. This means it can deliver the highest quality local advice in a flexible, seamless way that reflects the circumstances of each jurisdiction and the requirements of each matter. As a result, during 2010/11 the firm was able to successfully support clients across 130 different jurisdictions, and work with an international element grew by a third.
Types of work undertaken: BLP lawyers are ranked in over 60 areas of legal expertise and have extensive experience across 20 industry sectors. These include: commercial contracts; corporate finance; defence and aerospace; dispute resolution; energy and natural resources; EU and competition; finance; healthcare and education; hotels, leisure and gaming; human resources; insurance; intellectual property; outsourcing; public sector; real estate; retail; regulatory and compliance; restructuring and insolvency; tax; technology, media and telecoms; and transport and infrastructure.
The firm embraces diversity and is committed to social responsibility. For the last three years it has been ranked as the UK’s Top Legal Employer by Sweet & Maxwell. Further details are available via the firm’s website: www.blplaw.com.
Other offices: Abu Dhabi, Brussels, Moscow, Paris, Singapore, with plans to open in Hong Kong
Breakdown of work %
Real estate 28
Corporate 31
Finance 16
Dispute resolution 15
Tax 10
Number of UK partners 182
Number of other UK fee-earners 495
Above material supplied by Berwin Leighton Paisner LLP.