Taylor Wessing and Stephenson Harwood still planning merger
Stephenson Harwood has appointed a new CEO – but says it won’t affect the firm’s proposed merger with Taylor Wessing.
Former IP lawyer Eifion Morris will step down as CEO on 31 December for personal reasons, and will be replaced by the firm's global head of banking and finance James Linforth.
Stephenson Harwood says Morris will remain as partner and continue in an advisory role. It maintains that the firm’s “strategy, its priorities and commitment to international growth remain unchanged, including the ongoing discussions regarding the proposed merger with Taylor Wessing”.
Taylor Wessing was the result of a 2002 merger between UK law firm Taylor Joyson Garrett and Germany’s Wessing & Berenberg-Gossler. The UK branch – plus offices in Dubai, Ireland, Benelux and San Francisco – merged with Winston & Strawn earlier this year to form Winston Taylor.
The European offices which have continued under the Taylor Wessing mantle are in talks with Stephenson Harwood for their own merger.