Law firms’ merger expected

Tuesday 1st June 2010, 3:00PM BST.

Jonathan Rigby is expected to be group managing director

THE merger of two major Jersey and Guernsey law firms to create the largest Channel Islands’ practice was due to be officially confirmed today.

The new firm will be known as Mourant Ozannes and will employ about 400 staff working from offices in Jersey, Guernsey, London and the Cayman Islands.

The union of Mourant du Feu and Jeune and Ozannes creates a firm with 50 partners, the highest number of Channel Islands-based partners in any practice, and there will be 200 fee earners across the group.

When the announcement of the proposed deal was made earlier in the year it was said that job losses were unlikely.

At the time, Jonathan Rigby of Mourant, who was expected to be confirmed as group managing partner today, said that initially there would be no changes and it would be business as usual. It was, he said, possible that specific roles and jobs would change as the integration process took effect.

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