Bermuda law firm Appleby Spurling & Kempe is merging with Caymans firm Hunter & Hunter in a bid to become the leading offshore law firm.

Management heralded the move as creating - reportedly for the first time - a law firm with a major presence in both Bermuda and the Cayman Islands.

The merger, which is to take effect on April 1, will see AS&K's landmark name - borne for the past 55 years - change to Appleby Spurling Hunter (ASH).

Yesterday AS&K managing partner Peter Bubenzer told The Royal Gazette: “Each of the firms was interested in becoming the leading offshore law firm, and we happened to get in contact with each other and discovered this.” The details of the deal took six months to iron out.

The merger will combine the staff of the two firms with the result that ASH will have 100 lawyers - 28 of those being partners of the firm - and some 435 staff in offices throughout Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, Hong Kong and London.There were also reportedly to be no job redundancies as a result of the merger.

Management of the newly-named joint venture will remain with current AS&K bosses. Mr. Bubenzer said he will stay on as managing partner while the CEO of the combined operation will go to the man who currently holds that post for AS&K, James Jardine. Both executives will continue to be based in Bermuda.

The news was greeted by rival Bermuda law firm Conyers Dill & Pearman as “healthy”.

Head of marketing Ross Webber said: “We do wish our friends and counterparts all the very best with their merger. It is healthy and beneficial for the clients for there to be strong competition in the marketplace.”

But it is not a road that CD&P said it was considering.

“CD&P already has a significant presence in the offshore legal world and consequently we have no need to contemplate a merger," Mr. Webber said.

“Whilst we note that these firms (AS&K and Hunter&Hunter) have sought to grow through mergers, it has been the policy of CD&P to grow organically and develop our own foundations in respective markets.”

CD&P was said to already have an equal number of lawyers - 100 throughout offices in BVI, Hong Kong, Singapore and London - to the combined ASH operation.

“Each firm office operates through a coordinated structure and management process,” he said.

Mr. Bubenzer said the group's focus would not shift dramatically but he did not rule out ASH establishing subsidiary companies offering trust services in the future.

“The combined group will continue to focus on the historical strengths of each firm: general company and corporate advice, insurance, funds and investment services, asset finance and banking, telecommunications, dispute resolution, insolvency and restructuring, capital markets and financial structures, trusts and real property. Additionally, the legal offerings are complemented by trust, corporate administration and company management services.”

Mr. Bubenzer added that the merger created an “optimal situation for clients” including ASH being able to provide “dispassionate guidance regarding the selection of the most appropriate offshore jurisdiction”.

Although CD&P has a small office in the Cayman Islands, Mr. Bubenzer said this was the “first involvement of a Cayman-based group of this size in a Bermuda structure”.

However, the deal will not see either firm's ownership structure change. Mr. Bubenzer said the ownership in Bermuda and the Caymans will stay as is, including the Bermuda office being “100 percent Bermudian” while the Caymans operation would be held “in accordance with Cayman immigration requirements”.

Partners of AS&K and Hunter & Hunter voted unanimously in favour of the merger last month.