# Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner

Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner LLP (BCLP) is an international law firm with 31 offices worldwide. BCLP is headquartered in St Louis, Missouri. BCLP claims specialisms in Real Estate, Tax, Finance, Corporate, Litigation & Corporate Risk and Transactions.
BCLP was formed in 2018 with the merger of St. Louis based Bryan Cave and the London firm Berwin Leighton Paisner.

## History

King, Phillips & Stewart was founded in 1873 in St. Louis, Mo. A merger resulted in Stewart, Bryan, Christie & Williams in 1911, and six years, P. Taylor Bryan's name became the first in the firm title, where it remains to this day. Rhodes Cave joined the firm in 1917, and it was then named Bryan, Williams & Cave. The firm opened its first office in Washington, D.C. in 1978, and later in Los Angeles and New York. A decade later, they expanded to the west and southwest and opened offices in Phoenix and Kansas City.
In the U.S., the Chicago office opens. Shortly after, Bryan Cave and New York-based Robinson Silverman Pearce Aronsohn & Berman merged.
In 1932, UK-based firm Paisner & Co, provided general legal advice, including conveyancing. Almost a decade later, the firm developed a reputation for corporate work. Its clients included Great Universal Stores, Forte Holdings, and Penguin Books. in 1947, Leighton & Co iprovided litigation and property advice to property developers in the West End of London. in 1980 Berwin Leighton was formed from a merger of Leighton & Co and Berwin & Co. Their clients included Tesco, British Land, Ove Arup, and Lex.

## Growth and expansion

In 2005 Bryan Cave lost its Riyadh and Dubai offices to the Houston-based mega-firm Fulbright & Jaworski, but retained its office in Kuwait. The Kuwait office subsequently closed.
Offices were opened in Hamburg in 2007, and Milan, followed by San Francisco and Paris in 2008.
In 2009 Berwin Leighton Paisner was joined by 70 lawyers in Moscow under the leadership of Andrey Goltsblat, under the name Goltsblat BLP. Bryan Cave and Atlanta-based Powell Goldstein merged, creating an expanded firm with new offices in Atlanta, Charlotte, and Dallas.
Bryan Cave merged in 2012 with Holme Roberts & Owen (HRO), a law firm based in Denver, Colorado with over 210 attorneys. Bryan Cave also established an office in Frankfurt, Germany.
In 2018 Bryan Cave merged with the London firm of Berwin Leighton Paisner. Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, BCLP closed its 200-person Moscow office in 2022.
In 2023 Jeff Haidet, who previously was co-chair of Dentons US, joined BCLP as a partner. Fifteen lawyers specializing in intellectual property moved from Dentons to Bryan Cave.

## Notable transactions

BCLP represented Ralcorp in the 2007 $2.6 billion merger between Ralcorp and Kraft Foods' portfolio of cereals under the Post Cereal label.
In 2008 the company Advised Monsanto in its $290 million purchase of Aly Participacoes, a division of Brazilian global conglomerate Votorantim. Aly Participacoes operated two companies, CanaVialis S.A. and Alellyx S.A. which focus on sugarcane breeding and related applied genomics and biotech in the sugarcane industry.
BCLP counseled Barnes & Noble, the bookseller, on its $596 million purchase of Barnes & Noble College Booksellers Inc., a division that had been spun off from Barnes & Noble in the mid-1980s. The acquisition closed on October 1, 2009.