Bird & Bird is to merge its Baseline consulting arm with Valeocon Management Consulting, creating one of the largest management consultancy firms linked to an international law firm. The merged businesses will be known as Oxygy Management Consulting.

Holistic solutions

Baseline and Valeocon have worked together closely since 2015, helping clients transform their organisations and build capabilities as they respond to the rapidly changing business landscape. Current Baseline ceo, Edoardo Monopoli, has been appointed ceo of the combined business, with current Valeocon ceo, Steve Crom, serving as chairman of the board. The merger will allow Bird & Bird's lawyers and Valeocon's 70 consultants - who together have formed the delivery team on recent Baseline projects - to work even more closely together to support clients and accelerate the growth of the business. Operating from offices in Europe, Asia-Pacific and the USA, Oxygy will work with clients' business and legal teams to resolve commercial issues in three key areas: in regulatory compliance, digital and data-driven transformation, and business expansion. Bird & Bird ceo David Kerr says, “Baseline has been working closely with the Valeocon team for a number of years now, so it's extremely exciting for us as a firm to welcome the new team under the Oxygy name. Baseline's offering has been a crucial part of our aim to go above and beyond providing legal advice to our clients. Being able to support them through periods of immense change and providing holistic solutions to help their businesses succeed has been extremely well received, so we look forward to leveraging this further working closely with the Oxygy team.”

Future-proofing

Oxygy aims to future-proof clients' businesses for the changing competitive, technological and regulatory landscape, including the life sciences & healthcare, retail & consumer, tech & comms and financial services sectors. These are areas where Bird & Bird and Valeocon see strong synergies in their client base. Mr Monopoli, says the business lines and solutions the firms have been developing together the past few years “both resonate strongly with clients and align perfectly with the Bird & Bird vision: to be the number one law firm in the world for organisations being changed by the digital world or those leading that change.” He added, “As the business landscape continues to evolve, our collaborative approach and unique combination of legal and management consultancy expertise makes us well placed to help clients discover, design and deliver effective compliance, digital/data and expansion strategies.”