November 26, 2008 4:15 PM

Bryan Cave Proves Paris is For Lawyers

Posted by Rachel Breitman

Four months after announcing plans to open a Paris outpost, St. Louis based Bryan Cave said Wednesday that it now has the official approval needed to do so. 

"Based on client activity, Paris was a fairly important center for us to be in," says Rod Page, a partner in Washington, D.C. and leader of the firm's strategic growth team. "We haven’t closed the door on going elsewhere in Europe, though we don't have current plans to expand there.

The 135-year-old firm expanded rapidly in the last decade, with the addition of a Chicago office in 2001, a merger with a New York firm in 2002, more Illinois offices in 2004, new shops in Milan and Hamburg in 2007, and a new San Francisco space last March. In January, the firm is slated to further expand its reach to Atlanta, Charlotte, and Dallas through a merger with Atlanta-based Powell Goldstein. Affiliated consulting firm Bryan Cave International Trade LLC also has eight offices in Asia.

The Paris office will be helmed by three partners, all formerly at Dechert. Kathie Claret will focus on mergers and acquisitions, sales, joint ventures, strategic alliances, data privacy, and licensing and distribution arrangements. Jilali Maazouz will deal with civil and criminal litigation, and Joseph Smallhoover will advise public and private funds on corporate matters from operations to licensing, distribution, and marketing agreements.

To keep pace with the firm's recent global growth in the midst of a struggling legal economy and tightened credit market, Bryan Cave chairman Don Lents told The Am Law Daily last week that  Bryan Cave would be delaying raises for all associates and staff until April 1, and putting an end to a program giving associates bonuses based on a percentage of business they generate. The international offices will also be run relatively leanly, with a skeleton crew of under 20 partners handling a wide variety of legal matters.

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