The top 10 City firm, German member CMS Hasche Sigle and France’s CMS Bureau Francis Lefebvre each have separate operations in the Russian capital and are considering a move to join forces and become one of the largest single law firms in the market.
Discussions to work under a united CMS banner are still at an early stage, but if the move goes ahead, it will cement CMS’ presence in the region, making it a major player alongside other key firms such as Clifford Chance, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and White & Case.
Combined, the CMS firms have around 80 lawyers in the region and specialise in energy, telecommunications, financial services and real estate.
This would be the first major step towards convergence since it kicked off talks last year about working more closely together. Camerons, along with its French and German counterparts, is putting together a blueprint to increase links between the firms. Although this will exclude cost-sharing, the firms are likely to use common branding and combined conflicts checking.
The network recently appointed Matthew Gorman as its first-ever director of operations, with a remit to oversee the convergence process as well as the central finance, IT, human resources, risk management and business development functions.
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