2 Pittsburgh Firms Open Offices in British Isles

More Pittsburgh work calendars will be featuring teatime in the near future.

Two Western Pennsylvania companies recently announced they are establishing offices in the British Isles as the region’s ties to economies of the U.K. and Ireland continue to grow.

K&L Gates, the second-largest law firm in Pittsburgh, with nearly 150 attorneys, announced it has opened a branch in Dublin—its 48th worldwide and ninth in Europe, including London, Frankfurt and Paris.

The firm has already hired three attorneys for the Dublin office—adding to its 3,400-plus global workforce—and plans to add to its presence in Ireland in the future.

“As a globally significant market for the asset management and investment funds and broader financial services industries, Dublin represents an important strategic step for our firm in helping to meet the global needs of our clients,” said Tony Griffiths, K&L Gates’ managing partner for Europe and the Middle East, in a statement.

Joining K&L Gates across the pond is Marinus Analytics, a firm that relies on technology first developed at Carnegie Mellon University to combat human trafficking and other organized crime online.

The company partners with law enforcement agencies and others to offer data-driven analysis that can assist investigations into cybercrime and fraud. London will be home to its first international office.

“We’re now working with almost the whole of U.K. law enforcement and almost all of that was developed out of Pittsburgh,” said Dr. Ian Kearns, Marinus’ director, UK and Europe. “The concrete answer to the question ‘Why an office in London?’ is that we need a base here, we need a team here to help service the client base that the company has managed to grow already here.”

Kearns was part of a contingent of local business leaders and elected officials organized by Pittsburgh International Airport and VisitPittsburgh that traveled to London in October as part of a trade mission to encourage British Airways to increase its nonstop flights to Pittsburgh.

In November, BA announced it would add two flights a week, beginning in April, to its year-round nonstop service from PIT to London Heathrow.