New Biglaw Firm Alert: Troutman Pepper And Locke Lord In Merger Negotiations

// The big in Biglaw just keep getting bigger. And if a firm can’t pull down the $7 billion in revenue that mega-firm Kirkland can, merging their way to mammoth status is a great option.

Towards that end, American Lawyer confirms that Troutman Pepper Hamilton Sanders and Locke Lord are currently in merger talks. The firms’ official statement on the matter reads as follows, “Troutman Pepper and Locke Lord can confirm they have entered into discussions about a possible combination. Our first priority is delivering exceptional legal services to our clients, and as such, we will have no further comments at this time.”

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So… how would Troutman Locke stack up in the Biglaw? The combined firm would boast about 1.600 attorneys almost certainly rank in the Am Law 50. Based on 2023 numbers, the combo firm would have roughly $1.570 billion in revenue ($1.072 billion from Troutman and Locke Lord kicking in $497.6 million), placing it 28th overall. Not too shabby.

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Of course, there would also be redundancies — the firms each have offices in the following 7 cities: Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco and Washington, D.C. But some of the overlap between the firms could actually be a benefit:

Kent Zimmermann, a consultant at Zeughauser Group, said a merger will allow the firms to assume a more dominant market leader position in a number of industry sectors, which tends to build demand and result in more pricing power.

Zimmermann has for the last decade advised Troutman Pepper, and a predecessor firm, on strategy and growth and on the merger talks. He said the shared industry sector strengths attracted the firms to each other.

“It’s part of why they started talking,” he said.

The sectors are energy, insurance, health care and life sciences, private equity, financial services and real estate, he said.

That mutual focus on those sectors is important, he said, because two common threads in successful law firm combinations are shared strengths and shared market aspirations.

A combination would also allow both firms to grow geographically and achieve growth priorities.

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While we don’t know precisely how advanced the merger talks are, they aren’t finalized. A combination would require partner votes at both firms, neither of which have yet been scheduled.

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Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1 or Mastodon @[email protected].

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Biglaw, Biglaw Merger Mania, Locke Lord, Troutman Pepper