VILNIUS — Three law firms hailing from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania each merged Monday to form Varul Vilgerts Smaliukas.

The merger culminates a cooperative partnership started at the beginning of the year between the firms Vilgerts of Riga, Smaliukas, Juodka, Beniušis & Partners of Vilnius and Paul Varul of Tallinn and Tartu. The exact ownership arrangement remains confidential.

The new firm has offices in Tallinn, Tartu, Riga and Vilnius will be employing a total of around 60 lawyers.

Like most pan-Baltic law firms, Varul Vilgerts Smaliukas focuses on business law for companies active in all three nations. Past clients include Vilnius International Airport, Lietuvos Energija, the Estonian Ministry of Defense, the Henkell Group, the Fakto Group and the Estonian Development Fund.

Robert Juodka, a managing partner at the Lithuanian office, characterizes the merger as “natural” given the demand for pan-Baltic service.

“We have a lot of Scandinavian clients, even City of London firms. They were expecting us to provide pan-Baltic service,” Juodka told Baltic Reports. “It was to go along with market needs.”

Juodka said that the firm’s specialty is mergers and acquisitions, public-private partnerships, real estate, corporate law and especially energy.

“We did all the major energy projects this year,” Juodka said. “From the liquidation of LEO LT to the closing of Ignalina power plant, the electricity grid interconnection to Sweden, the implementation of the second European Union energy package and advice on the implementation of the third EU energy package.”

For more information visit www.varul.com.