Local barristers and attorneys Conyers Dill & Pearman are set to double the number of attorneys working in their office in London.

Bermudian lawyer Tonya Marshall will head off to London within a few weeks to start a two-year posting to Europe's most important financial centre.

"We are increasing the professional staff in our London office as the result of increasing demand for our services in London and Europe,'' said Conyers Dill & Pearman general manager John Buckley. "The assignment of Ms Marshall as our second lawyer is in line with our plans for the development of our London practice.'' The firm's offices are at 34, Threadneedle Street, not far from the Bank of England. Ms Marshall will join lawyer Martin Lane, the firm's first London-based attorney, who has worked at Threadneedle Street since the firm opened its offices there at the end of April last year.

The London office tends to some of the firm's European clients and allows the lawyers to direct business to their Bermuda headquarters and, on occasion, to their other offices in Hong Kong, Guernsey, the Cayman Islands and the British Virgin Islands.

Ms Marshall joined Conyers Dill & Pearman in September 1997, although she was not exactly a newcomer to the firm. She had served her pupillage at one of the firm's associated companies, Codan Services, and had worked for the firm for five years on and off, including a six-month stint between her first and second years of legal schooling.

Ms Marshall gained a Bachelor of Commerce degree from Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia before taking a two-year Bachelor of Laws (Honours) degree at the University of Buckingham in England.

She then completed a post-graduate diploma in legal practice at the Institute of Legal Practice in Oxford, leading to qualification as a solicitor. She was called to the Bermuda Bar in September, 1998.

Ms Marshall said that she is looking forward to returning to work in the UK and to learning about life in London.

"I hope to grow professionally, make different contacts and meet some of the firm's European clients,'' she said.

Ms Marshall works in the firm's Corporate Department, and expects her work in London to be not dissimilar from what she does now.

John Buckley LAWYERS LEG BUSINESS BUC