Feb. 1 (Bloomberg) -- Jones Day, a law firm with more than 2,500 attorneys worldwide, will open a Dusseldorf office as it seeks to expand its presence in Germany.

“Our German practice has recently made very significant progress, in particular in M&A, private equity, antitrust, and patent litigation,” said Ansgar Rempp, who will serve as partner in charge of the new office, in a statement. “The Dusseldorf office will accelerate this development and is a major step forward for Jones Day towards becoming one of the leading firms in Germany.”

Rempp, who previously was the head of the firm’s Munich office, said that Jones Day is pursuing a number of lateral hirings.

Jones Day, which has more than 70 lawyers in its existing Munich and Frankfurt offices combined, said the new office will allow the firm to practice in the Dusseldorf patent infringement court. The office will also focus on corporate matters, M&A, private equity and antitrust.

The firm was ranked as the seventh-highest-grossing law firm in 2010 by the American Lawyer, a trade magazine, with more than $1.62 billion in revenue.

--Editors: Fred Strasser, Peter Blumberg

-0- Feb/01/2012 23:26 GMT

To contact the reporter on this story: Ian Thomas in New York at ithomas15@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Michael Hytha at mhytha@bloomberg.net -0- Feb/01/2012 22:49 GMT