King & Wood Mallesons and SJ Berwin LLP agreed to merge the two companies to form a single law firm valued at USD1 billion. The merger will also house more than 2,700 law practitioners to work under the new law firm.

In a joint statement released today, the combined firm will have more than 550 partners starting November 1 in 30 different locations.

SJ Berwin was formed last year from the merger of King& Wood of Beijing and Sydney-based Mallesons Stephen Jaques. The combination of the companies followed the inception of Norton Rose Fulbright which has partnerships in London, Australia, Canada, Houston and South Africa. The current merger made London-based SJ Berwin one of the biggest law firms in Asia.

Today, both law firm partners in Australia, Hong Kong, London and China gave their entire support to the merger through approval votes of which concluded the agreement. This was according to Stuart Fuller, King& Wood Mallesons Global Managing Partner, at a media briefing.