Travers Smith Braithwaite, a London law firm with over 200 lawyers, has opened for business in Germany, breaking with years of tradition in providing only English law advice to its international clients.

Travers Smith's first hire in Germany is Karl Pilny, who joins the new Berlin-based office as a partner in November. Pilny joins from the Berlin office of Coudert Brothers, one of the oldest international law firms. Travers has hired several more German lawyers who will join its new office over the next few months, to handle a mixture of corporate and financial work.