Offshore law firms Appleby and Dickinson Cruickshank have merged, creating the largest offshore firm by the number of partners.

The new merged firm will begin operating by October this year under the Appleby name, with 73 partners and 200 lawyers across nine offices-Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Jersey, Mauritius, Hong Kong, London, Zurich and the Isle of Man.

The strategic merger extends both firms' jurisdictional reach and resources, with Appleby gaining Isle of Man legal service capabilities. Peter Bubenzer will maintain his position as Appleby group managing partner in the merged firm.

Appebly Hong Kong managing partner Frances Woo said that the Asia operation will be an integral part in merger. “The Isle of Man will provide another operation to our clients as far west as Africa, India to North Asia. We’re actually bringing all of those [offshore] jurisdictions to Asia via our Hong Kong office, which is a positive message to our clients, and in a way it strengthens our position.To an extent there have been some AIM listings by PRC entities on the secondary exchange in London and that will definitely have an Asian connection,” she said.

The Hong Kong office may also be seconding lawyers across offices. “There could well be secondees from our Isle of Man office, or at some point people here will be offering those services as well,” said Woo.

Offshore firms have experienced a year of expansion - late last year Ogier launched in Tokyo and Bahrain, while Walkers opened in Singapore.

Find out which firms made it in the annual ALB 50 Largest Firms 2009, published in ALB's July issue.