Top 10 Spanish firm Pérez-Llorca is set to shift its London office from the City to Mayfair to be closer to the international funds based nearby that make up a large part of its client base.

The Madrid-based firm expects the move from 110 Bishopsgate to 17 Hill Street will take place next month once work on the new office is finished. 

A trio of lawyers is also set to relocate from the firm's Spanish offices to join resident partner Álvaro Ramírez de Haro, currently its sole lawyer in London. The group, which the firm described as comprising a senior, mid-level and junior lawyer but declined to name, will practise Spanish law and is expected to work alongside Ramírez de Haro to strengthen links with major investors, financial institutions and law firms. 

Ramírez de Haro said the decision to move the office to Mayfair was “in response to the increasingly significant amount of work that we carry out with large funds, the majority of which are located in London’s West End. Our close relationship with investment funds is one of the main reasons for Pérez-Llorca’s success and the London office now plays a key role in generating and carrying out this work.”

He added that the office’s interaction with funds is “constant, and as such it makes sense to us to move closer to their decision-making centres and further strengthen our links with them. This change also reflects Pérez-Llorca’s position as a leading firm in Spain for large international investment funds.”

The Legal 500 lists a number of international funds with offices in Mayfair as being key clients of Pérez-Llorca's private equity practice, including LetterOne, Blackstone and Rhone Capital. It also lists Ramírez de Haro as a key lawyer in the practice. 

The firm made its debut on Iberian Lawyer’s ranking of top 10 Spanish law firms by revenue in April after its 2020 income hit €68.5m, putting it in tenth place behind Linklaters.

The firm launched the London office, its first overseas, in 2014 to advise clients on the Spanish law aspects of their transactions and said the new office redoubles its efforts for commercial development in the city, one of the world’s centres for financial and capital markets transactions. 

It also set up shop in New York in 2015, with the office currently housing M&A-focused resident partner Javier Gómez. The vast majority of the firm’s more than 300 lawyers are based in its two Madrid offices, while a team of around thirty work out of its Barcelona arm.

Top 40 US firm Squire Patton Boggs also looked to develop its London funds offering recently, hiring private investment specialist Steven Ward from Paul Hastings to spearhead its new funds practice in the city in June.