Top technology firm Bird & Bird is to merge with Sweden’s Gedda & Ekdahl in the first major UK-Swedish merger.

Bird & Bird, rated as the UK’s top IP/IT firm, is to merge with Stockholm-based Geddas on 1 December, one month before the expected marriage between Linklaters and Swedish ally Lagerlof Leman. The combined firm will be called Bird & Bird, with nine-partner Geddas switching to its London-based counterpart’s partnership structure.