Law Firm Merger Mania: K&L Gates and Kennedy Covington Make It Official
Last month we mentioned merger talks between K&L Gates and Kennedy Covington. Just to close the loop on this, the firms have made it official. From the K&L Gates press release:
Partners from the law firms of Kirkpatrick & Lockhart Preston Gates Ellis LLP (K&L Gates) and Kennedy Covington Lobdell & Hickman, LLP (Kennedy Covington) today voted to combine the two firms, effective July 1, 2008.
The combination creates a firm of more than 1,700 lawyers in 28 offices located throughout the United States, Europe and Asia, including the largest Carolinas presence of any global law firm. The firm will maintain North Carolina offices in Charlotte, Raleigh and Research Triangle Park.
In the comments to our earlier post about the merger talks, opinions were all over the map -- about Kennedy Covington's relative standing among Charlotte law firms, whether a merger would be good for the KC attorneys, and whether a merger would be a smart move for K&L Gates. What does everyone think of the merger now that it's a done deal?
K&L Gates, Kennedy Covington Partners Approve Combination of Firms [K&L Gates]
Earlier: Law Firm Merger Mania: K&L Gates + Kennedy Covington?
(50) 
First!
FIRST Kennedy, NEXT Wachovia.
First to say, who fxxx cares!
maybe K&L kennedy or whatever it will be called will finally provide free cokes to its employees.
KC was a penny-pinching bucket shop.
Who cares if two shitty firms combine to form one shitty megafirm? How lame is this?
What about PoGo? Or Womble Carlye?
4:38 - The firm is keeping the K&L Gates name, according to the press release.
Agree with 4:39. Two shittys make a big shitty.
4:39 - KC was not a "shitty firm." As for K&L Gates, apparently that's another story...
Commenters here are such snobs. Cravath and Skadden are not the only good law firms in the country.
4:40, 4:38 here. i didn't read the press release until just now, but i was hoping that they'd ditch the lettering scheme. DLA Piper, K&L gates = stupid.
after having read the press release, i see no mention of free cokes though.
4:41: Is Skadden a "good" firm?
Wachtell or Die, Baby.
4:41 = shameless Skadden troll.
4:41, I agree. A bunch fo first and second year know-nothing shitbirds freely denigrate respected firms because they're not Wachtell, Davis Polk, etc. Go back to Autoadmit, you losers.
they should put covington in the new name, hoping that hapless clients will mistake them for the real deal.
Merge merge merge. What's it getting them aside from more conflicts and higher overhead?
Are they merging because one of the firms can't keep its head above water?
5:03, no they are merging because both of them are doing great. Why not google Kennedy Covington and read how many partners left in last year. Then look at some of the hires they made. Don't want to give myself away, as Charlotte small legal community, but they hired some really crap lawyers. You know when you are about to throw something away and your neighbour comes in with an offer to buy it for $2000, they did that twice.
What's K&L Gates?
For nearly two centuries, Cravath has been known as the premier American law firm. Each of their practice areas is highly regarded and their lawyers are recognized for their commitment to the representation of their clients interests in the U.S. and throughout the world.
For nearly two decades, Kennedy Covington has been known to be a TTT.
Done.
DLA Piper wannabe.
Wow I just jizzed in my pants. Some paint dried today as well.
5:41.... yawn. You are so boring and cliche
Just because I can't resist:
"I have all the characteristics of a Cravath Associate: shirt, tie, watch, law degree- but not a single, clear, identifiable shred of talent, except for networking and lament. Something horrible is happening inside of my TTT law firm and I don't know why. My nightly lack of work has overflown into my days. I feel useless, on the verge of firing. I think my mask of employment is about to slip."
and 4:55 wins the thread.
I had planned to make a joke about how the new mega TTT firm should prominently feature "Covington" in its name in an effort to leach off the prestige of C&B, but 4:55 beat me to the punch. Good work.
5:07, what do you think will happen to KC's real estate practice? Do you think those who can jump ship will?
6:11, not sure. They have a great planning group and are well connected in the development world in the Carolinas. My firm would love to take them, show them a PPP above $1mm, but it may conflict with our lending clients.
I think they will jump ship, if only as some of the dumb hires have been in that group. If you know the Woman and Man I am talking about then you understand.
Anybody know what K&L pays (non-NY offices)? Any guesses about their salaries for Charlotte?
My Cravath really itches. Sugestions?
Charlotte is filled with spanks from UVA and Duke. Who the hell would absorb a firm from that city.
Skadden has everyone else in a choke hold, brother!
6:35, thanks for the insight. It'll be interesting to see what happens.
6:35, out of curiosity, what do you think the land use/real estate partners are pulling in now?
Cravath is the Chuck Norris of Biglaw.
Cravath and Skadden are the end-all-be-alls? Please, I'm no KC defender, but at least their attorneys have enough of a life that they have the time to spend their over-bloated salaries...
Skadden pile drives Cravath into the mat, brother! Snap into a Cravath associate!!!
Guys at my high school used to merge with K&L Gates all the time. It wasn't a big deal.
ew, do we really need another DLA Piper?
Real firms don't merge.
Free cokes are just the beginning for KC associates. It's going to be totally awesome.
DLA Piper Gates Ellis Skadden Covingstein and Frank
When you combine as many TTTs as K&L Gates, is it easier to use scientific notation?
"ATL Posters - Proving Again Why the World Hates Lawyers . . . and Lawyers Do, Too"
since the charlotte "banking" community is in the shitter, they probably got it pretty cheap.
since the charlotte "banking" community is in the shitter, they probably got it pretty cheap.
Among the top firms, Cravath associates really do stand out . . . in their need to crow about how great they are on anonymous internet boards.
I wonder what that's all about.
"When you combine as many TTTs as K&L Gates, is it easier to use scientific notation?"
Nice.
Name a banking community that is not in the shitter...cause that's exactly where NYC is at right now.
From the perspective of an attorney at another Charlotte firm: it strikes me that KC's decision was driven more by the desire of its corporate and (some) litigators to bring more resources to the bank relationships. I don't think the real estate folks were behind this (although I'm sure many of them were OK with it) and I expect for the most part that the firm's real estate clients are indifferent, and perhaps in some cases skeptical of whether fee structures will remain at local market levels. Remember that KC has almost no bank financing capability anymore, so its private equity and general corporate practice suffers from an absence of that resource. Query whether BOA (which is a K&L Gates client, in some areas) and Wachovia will care much one way or the other. In any event, consistent with what others have posited, it wouldn't surprise me to see some fallout in their real estate practice.
Hey 8:16, I have heard that they make just over half of what they are worth (surprise that my contact there thinks that!), and will make a decent bump with the merger but not as much as they could.
Agree with much of 2:27, except that both Wachovia and BofA have outgrown needing a charlotte base for its counsel.
9:59 PM
Hysterical. I remember coming into work one day and just finding out that we "adopted" a Newark office.