Two major alternative legal-services firms, Asia Pacific-focused AdventBalance and London-headquartered Lawyers On Demand (LOD), are set to combine forces in the first-ever cross-continent merger of its kind, creating one of the world’s largest New Law businesses.

After the deal, which is expected to be finalised in March, the merged firm will be known as LOD beginning the second half of 2016. It will have seven offices across the globe – Hong Kong, Singapore, Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth and London – and will bring together more than 600 lawyers and create a client base that includes over 500 companies and firms.

Tom Hartley, LOD’s former managing director, will be the combined firm’s new CEO, while Ken Jagger, co-founder and ex-CEO of AdventBalance, will be the COO.

“We’ve known and admired AdventBalance for many years, having ‘grown up’ together in the New Law environment we helped to create. Both businesses are very successful in their own right. What we also share is an unwavering commitment to our people and time has shown us that happy lawyers mean happy clients,” said Simon Harper, LOD co-founder and one of the new firm’s managing directors, in a statement.