K&L Gates will head into Australia in a big way when it officially merges with Aussie firm Middletons on Jan. 1, but the market is notand cannot befor everyone, some analysts have said.
The merger will give K&L Gates an additional 300 lawyers across new offices in Melbourne, Sydney, Perth and Brisbane and a 400-lawyer presence across 11 offices in the Asia-Pacific region. K&L Gates leader Peter J. Kalis said Australia was an attractive market, in its broadest terms, because of its ties and familiarity to other Asian markets while at the same time being an English-speaking territory, as well as the $550 billion in U.S. investment into Australia since 2005 and the Australian legal work being done in the wealthy country by Middletons lawyers.
