Deloitte UK Will Acquire US Immigration Law Firm, Berry Appleman Leiden

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Summary: Deloitte UK will acquire Berry Appleman Leiden, a US-based immigration law firm. 

One of the world’s biggest consultancy firms has inked a deal to acquire the international office of a US immigration law firm. According to Legal Week, this agreement will be “first of its kind.”

  

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Deloitte UK will acquire US immigration law firm Berry Appleman & Leiden (BAL), and Legal Week said that this deal comes at a time when the Big Four accounting firms are moving into the legal market. The Big Four are Deloitte, Pricewaterhouse Cooper, Ernst & Young, and KPMG.

The alliance between Deloitte and BAL will give BAL access to Deloitte’s expansive resources, and Deloitte will acquire the law firm’s non-US business. BAL has offices in eight countries, including the UK and China.

“The notion of the alliance is being able to provide the very best of both organizations,” BAL’s Texas-based managing partner Jeremy Fudge said to Legal Week. “To bring together the best immigration law firm in the US and the best consulting firm in the mobility space is really game-changing.”

BAL has approximately 100 attorneys, and its largest office is located in San Francisco, which has roughly 300 employees. BAL also has American branches in Austin, Boston, and Washington DC, and other cities.

The deal is expected to go into effect on July 9. A representative from Deloitte said that the deal was about one year in the making.

This is not the first immigration law firm that Deloitte has made an alliance with. In 2014, it acquired Canadian immigration law firm, Guberman Garson in a similar deal to what was made with BAL.

Deloitte stated that the Guberman Garson partnership allowed it to have immigration lawyers with tax professionals side-by-side.

“With the increased need for cross-border business travel, global organizations are recognizing the value of a firm that can bring a global footprint to help support the challenges of delivery and corporate compliance,” Kalvinder Dhillon, Deloitte Global Immigration Lead said in a press release. “Our ability to provide a fully global, end-to-end service will help employers move talent where it’s needed and enhance their compliance.”

The Big Four’s move into the legal sector has been happening recently. In 2017, PWC launched its own law firm, ILC Legal, which offers US clients advice on international issues but does not offer US law counsel. ALM Intelligence said that the Big Four would offer an increase in competition with law firms in the future.

“Immigration is now a C-Suite priority and the landscape is more complex than ever before. Today’s global businesses need innovative thinking, global scale and deep expertise,” Jeremy Fudge, BAL Managing Partner, said in a statement. “We’re offering clients the very best of two leading organizations, delivering a level of expertise, scale, control and accountability they can’t get anywhere else.”

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