Law Firm Merger Mania: K&L Gates + Hughes & Luce
The combined firm will have over 1,500 lawyers in 23 offices. It will "employ the K&L Gates brand and have the legal name of Kirkpatrick & Lockhart Preston Gates Ellis LLP." Press release here.
Update: Some commentary from an inside source, after the jump.
K&L Gates, Hughes & Luce Partners Vote to Combine Firms Effective January 1 [K&L Gates]
Here's what one source has to say about the merger:
The story we told is that the firm wanted to get a foothold in the Texas market, because of the job and business growth there. Hughes & Luce was not getting big pieces of corporate or litigation work, because they had no offices outside Texas. The K&L legacy Dallas office did not "take" (just a series of lateral hires and little growth), so the firm looked to acquire a firm. The Hughes & Luce managing partner will be on the Management Committee, and each Texas office will have an administrative partner from legacy Hughes & Luce, who is supposed to function like a local managing partner (although they may not have as much autonomy as they think).
We heard the cultures fit well, but there was also concern because K&L was paying $125K in Dallas for first-years and Hughes was at $135K, moving to $160K in January. They are going with the pay scale Hughes & Luce announced, which approximately equals the Texas market, so all first-years will be at $160K in January.
Predictions are that the Dallas office will grow to 200 within a few years, but that is contingent on beefing up the corporate practice significantly, which has apparently lagged at Hughes (lots of turnover, difficult partners to work for, etc.).
We are also hearing that the firm will open a Houston office soon and acquire a firm in the Chicago legal market (the last major market the firm is not in).
(51) Comments
I've never heard of the firm "Huge & Loose". Or is it "Huge & Lose"?
Haha, Hughes & Luce gets gobbled up like a bunch of [female dogs]! Don't even get 1 name in the partnership, while Preston Gates and Ellis gets to keep all 3.
That's where you are on the food chain, and don't forget it, you Lucers!
Haha, Hughes & Luce gets gobbled up like a bunch of [female dogs]! Don't even get 1 name in the partnership, while Preston Gates and Ellis gets to keep all 3.
That's where you are on the food chain, and don't forget it, you Lucers!
Yawn.
never heard of either...
Huey Lewis?
You people are either impatient or r-tarded. This is a 150 person firm in Texas. That is never worthy of an additional name in the partnership.
2:11 PM(1):
That's right. The News was abandoned in a previous merger.
so how about those Powell Goldstein/Womble Carlyle merger rumors?
Not technically a merger I'm sure but actually an acquisition. The buzz word you will see in the press release is usually "combination." Basically, Hughes and Luce got bought. They will have very little say in management overall and over time, they will have very little say in management over their own office.
Good move by K&L
Not technically a merger I'm sure but actually an acquisition. The buzz word you will see in the press release is usually "combination." Basically, Hughes and Luce got bought. They will have very little say in management overall and over time, they will have very little say in management over their own office.
Not technically a merger I'm sure but actually an acquisition. The buzz word you will see in the press release is usually "combination." Basically, Hughes and Luce got bought. They will have very little say in management overall and over time, they will have very little say in management over their own office.
1,500 lawyers. Surprising for two firms that no one cares about.
Time to add another "T" to their designation:
TTTT = Total Third Tier Toilet
That is a big deal in Texas even if not in NY, judging by the posts.
No, it is a big deal in Texas even if not...ANYWHERE ELSE, judging by how irrelevant TX biglaw is to the US legal scene. They match raises...what else? Anything you gain by that is lost by having to live in Texas.
Maybe its a strategic moves by all the H&L attorneys to create an excuse to transfer - en masse - to non-Texas offices without having to risk changing jobs (and getting that quizzical "What the hell is a Hughes & Luce?" look from recruiters and attorneys looking at their resumes in real markets)!
Anana, I'll remember that when I spend my $230k salary on a house, convertible, and a boat, while you're probably living in a 600 sq. ft. condo. I don't work at H&L, by the way.
160k in Texas, live large. Big house, nice car, savings.
160k in NY, get on the subway, walk up five flights of stairs to your 500 SF apartment. Real market? Congrats.
160k in Texas = is, were, and always will be a douche.
Imagine: owned by a mere 160.
160k in Texas. Bill 2000 hours. Leave work at 6:30.
160k in NY. Bill 2800 hours. Leave work at 10:30.
Who is owned?
160K in Texas is the bomb! My rent is $1000/month and it's a 1000 sq. ft. apt 5 minutes from work in the best area of town for going out, etc. I pull my paid-for car into the garage to park, which the firm also pays for.
"$230k salary on a house, convertible, and a boat"
This is confusing. Is that for a down payment or the entire house? What type of convertible? What type of boat?
As new car and boat prices are pretty much the same nationally, that only leaves housing prices as different and the problem with yours is that your house is in Texas.
But sadly, you're still in Texas.
NY is unassailably inferior to Texas except in the "prestige" department; a concept brewed up by those in NY to buttress their self-esteem in the face of those factors that overwhelmingly point to a better quality of (both personal and professional) life in Texas.
3:54
You're right. I see your point now. I take back everything bad I've ever said about gap-toothed yokels from Texas. You guys sure can count!
The cost of owning a car in TX and NYC are very different.
NYC=more hours, more taxes, more traffic, less house, less quality of life.
A 300K house in TX would cost 1.5-2.0M in NYC. A young associate in Texas can live as nice as a partner in NYC.
why are you such a hater?? Don't get all butt hurt just because someone outside of new york is making more money than you. Now go grab your flashlight and a can of roach spray and get back to doc review in the basement. I'll have a drink for you when I leave work at 630.
I interviewed with them when they were Preston Gates (DC office) and they were horrible. I guess they figure by bringing on more, um, questionable firms, they'll "grow" themselves out of mediocrity.
Good luck!
4:01pm, don't forget taxes are lower in texas, too. no state or local income tax.
I interviewed with them when they were K,L,N,&G and they were horrible. They described themselves as a large affiliation of sole practitioners.
What a suck-ass firm to retain from a client's perspective.
seriously texans, have you ever ever left your state?
the lonestar is a sh!t-hole compared to the world outside.
a fortiori with respect to NY.
As a recent transplant to SoCal from Texas, I love when the Texas vs. rest of the market talk flares up. I have no dog in the fight as I've genuinely enjoyed both my time in Texas andl So Cal. Not to disrupt the "butt hurting" (nice phrase), but let me ask a obstensibly civil question. IF, and I emphasize IF, a person genuinely enjoyed living in Texas, what case could you make that working BigLaw elsewhere in the country would be better for them professionally, financially, personally... my bro, and other people I know, are struggling with this question
5:02 asks "...what case could you make that working BigLaw elsewhere in the country would be better for them...?"
They wouldn't be in TTTexas.
5:13 really couldn't have made the case for his Texan adversaries any better than s/he did with that response. Congratulations. Few fall on their own sword so well - I think you hit an artery.
5:13 really couldn't have made the case for his Texan adversaries any better than s/he did with that response. Congratulations. Few fall on their own sword so well - I think you hit an artery.
This is truly a merger of equals. Two great firms combining to make an even greater one. Watch out Baker Botts
Don't mess with Texas, y'all!
2 wrongs don't make a right
I understand, given the miserable politcal reputation the state has, that people who have never been to Texas might have a miserable opinion of the place, but . . .
. . . I moved to Texas a few years ago, and couldn't be happier. And I'm a true Northern Liberal, so there you go. Ask any Northerner who's actually visited for a bit, and you'll get the same response.
5:12 - he/she could actually respect themselves.
BS on COL - 300k doesn't buy a nice house in the nice areas of Austin anymore. Even Clarksville is up to 700k (Clarksville was the marginal area as recently as the 80's). 300k recently bought a small 2BR in East Austin. You can get a nice house that needs work in nice neighborhood for ~500k. Yeah you can go out to the boonies, but you can do that in NYC too.
K&L Gates is the John Shaft of Investment Management. In fact, K&L Gates is one bad mutha..
Shut yo' mouth..
Just talking bout K&L Gates, baby..
then we can dig it.
The word is the two sides have met and are in preliminary discussions.
The would be an acquisition and not a merger. PoGo would be no longer.
Personally, unless (1) Womble discovers the PoGo culture doesn't fit or (2) PoGo's financials are worse than advertised (I hear PoGo is telling Womble they will post a "great" year when 2007 is done), the deal will get done. PoGo wants to get bought out and Womble wants to be a player in Atlanta. Makes sense to me.
Guys in my high school used to womble your pogo. It was no big deal.
Maybe acquiring PoGo would force Womble to pay its associates market salaries?
This is Hughes & Luce info from NALP:
Average annual associate hours worked: 2246 (2005) 2348 (2006)
Average annual associate billable hours: 1762 (2005) 1747 (2006)
Is there a minimum billable hour expectation? Y
If "Yes", number: 1950
So associates can't get enough work to meet their billables, even though they're spending a lot of time hanging around the place.
You are all a bunch of selfish bastards with your money and your so called big salaries. It would be nice if one of you actually used it for the good of this world and gave it back twice fold. But you just go off and act like the big shits you are and buy your houses and boats and crap that will be worthless as you work yourselves to death for what? Nothing? In the end you work is fruitless and only matters to one person, yourself.
Maybe you should consider some pro-bono or CASA work or ad-litem work for the kids of this world who do not have a voice. Oh I forgot that is not worthy enough for you big shits and does not bring in the big salaraies that pays for all your worthless crap.
Maybe if you spent less time bitching about each other and your salaries and actually spent some time working together to make this world a better place you might actually get something accomplished.