Law Firm Merger Mania: Alston & Bird Swoops In on Weston Benshoof
Just to close the loop on this prior report, the talks between Alston & Bird and Los Angeles-based Weston Benshoof have borne fruit. Alston’s acquisition of Weston is official. From a firm-wide email just issued by A&B managing partner Richard Hays:
This morning, the partners voted overwhelmingly to expand the firm into California with the opening of two new offices. The Los Angeles-based Weston Benshoof firm and their 83 attorneys will become a part of Alston & Bird and, additionally, we will be opening an office in Silicon Valley with a group of eleven (11) intellectual property lawyers formerly with Akin Gump.
The complete memo appears after the jump. The official press release from Alston & Bird appears here (PDF).
Elsewhere on the A&B front, we’ve been hearing all sorts of rumors about goings-on over there — some of them in comments, and some by email. There may be nothing to them; but if there’s anything to report, you know where to reach us. Thanks.
ALSTON & BIRD — MEMORANDUM — ACQUISITION OF WESTON BENSHOOF
I am pleased to share some very exciting news about the firm. This morning, the partners voted overwhelmingly to expand the firm into California with the opening of two new offices. The Los Angeles-based Weston Benshoof firm and their 83 attorneys will become a part of Alston & Bird and, additionally, we will be opening an office in Silicon Valley with a group of eleven (11) intellectual property lawyers formerly with Akin Gump. I am also pleased to report that our partner, Randall Allen, will be relocating to the Bay Area to lead the effort.
Weston Benshoof is a highly regarded firm with special expertise in litigation and energy and was ranked by Chambers USA in 2008 as one of the best environmental practices in all of California. The 2008 edition of Benchmark: Litigation, a guide to America’s leading litigation firms and attorneys, ranked Weston Benshoof as one of the leading litigation firms in California, also making note of the firm’s acclaimed environmental litigation abilities. The lawyers joining us in Silicon Valley have extensive experience in IP litigation and represent international clients involved in a variety of technology-related businesses.
Our office in Palo Alto will open this Friday, August 1, and the combination with Weston Benshoof will occur September 1. This schedule is aggressive, but we are up to the challenge and much has already been accomplished.
For some time, the firm has searched for an appropriate California base to serve our growing number of West Coast clients. An extraordinary number of our attorneys have spent a great deal of time and energy telling the A&B story, performing due diligence, negotiating and now in making the integration happen. The teamwork displayed throughout the process has been strong and apparent and ultimately played a big role in moving both groups to Alston & Bird.
These are exciting times, and I am confident that you will be hearing more about this from many sources. But I wanted to share the quick news with you personally. The contribution each of you makes daily sustains what is great about the firm, and I look forward to joining with you to welcome these new members of the Alston & Bird family.
Richard Hays
Managing Partner
(46) 
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First?
This news is third, though, to Cadwalader and ATL Idol
A&B = TTT. First.
Nice move for them. K&S and Troutman offices look a little lame now.
I know some people at Alston and Bird. The firm seems to be expanding like gangbusters. No idea if this is great or disastrous in the long run.
But how is their Charlotte office doing?
ip attorneys = never getting fired! awesome!
How exactly does picking up a no-name LA firm that services (generously) mid-market clients make K&S look stupid for going into Silicon Valley and SF and hand-picking lawyers it wants from name firms?
Are you kidding??? How is this friggin news... "will be opening an office in Silicon Valley with a group of eleven (11) intellectual property lawyers formerly with Akin Gump."
This was covered by mainstream media ages ago. I thought we only dealt with juicy and crazy rumors on here.
Sorry 11:38, but A&B has not been "expanding like gangbusters" in any meaningful way the last few years, particularly not in profitability This move strikes me as a Hail Mary -- acquiring some fourth tier L.A. firm to increase lawyer headcount. While A&B recruiters like you might be dazzled by headcount, the more important question is whether the firm has added quality and profitability through these moves. Time will tell.
11:54,
A&B is opening a London office within the next 6 months and there are plans to open a China office in Hong Kong.
I know that K&S associates like to downplay these moves though.
Dear low-billing A+B attorney :
You have been made redundant. Please leave all firm supplied materials (including business cards) in the box previously placed outside your door. Your e-mail and voicemail will remain active until the end of the week.
Thanks,
PPP
It seems there is some A&B hate around here? Any particular reason why? Not a very good firm?
#11 needs to get back to work and stop making "funny" comments.
I don't think K&S worries about A&B much these days.
No, we don't worry about A&B.
Had not heard of the L.A. firm at issue, so I looked them up in Chambers USA for environmental work as directed by the A&B memo. Boy, kind of unimpressive summary, unless you are looking to enter L.A. in a mid-tier, mid-profit practice -- active at the "regional level" and "value for money", which seems to be code for low rates. Is this really the best practice area on which to base new office growth? The IP play in No. Cal. makes sense, but investing in 80+ lawyers for an environmental firm in L.A. seems a bit odd.
I love it when lawyers at TTTs fight. It's like when students at Thomas Cooley says they're, like, way better than UPenn State students, and vice versa. Hilarity always ensues.
I second 15: No one at K&S worries about A+B anymore. Like that stupid "+" that Alston put in its name, that was an early 90s thing.
Wow, you are opening a London office. You are only a decade too late. Good luck with that.
I second 15: No one at K&S worries about A+B anymore. Like that stupid "+" that Alston put in its name, that was an early 90s thing.
Wow, you are opening a London office. You are only a decade too late. Good luck with that.
A&B announces the addition of 90+ attorneys on the same day that CWT announces the termination of 90+ attorneys. Coincidence probably, but also an indicator into the mindset of each firm during a rough economic climate. A&B long-term potential vs. CWT short-term fix?
Rumors are swirling in Charlotte that A&B laid off a bunch of associates this morning. Can anyone confirm?
No, 6, you are incorrect, being a patent attorney is FREAKING AWSOME!!
No. Cal has an effing mountain of ip work. If they play there hands rights these attorneys may be able to hook some big fish.
Patent Attorneys to 200...
WE are deserve it!
"WE are deserve it!"
Good thing patent lawyers don't have to work in English.
HAHA@12:38
K&S and A&B are toilets.
22 = non-patent troll
23 = gullible idiot
Thanks, 24 for your NYC insight. Much better to work for a NYC firm like Cadwalader, than expanding firms like K&S and A&B where you can make great money, work on interesting matters, and have a life.
17 & 24 = Bitter PoGo Associates
1:38, I agree with you completely.
My buddies and I in highschool used to Benshoof, it was no big deal.
1:38, I agree with you completely.
Why would K&S associates care about downplaying A&B's moves? Congrats on the acquisition, I say, and may it prompt A&B to pay bonuses that are somewhere in the ballpark of K&S's, even though I think we all know that's a pipe dream. But hey, you guys enjoy those blue jean Fridays! I sure do wish I could trade ten of thousands in comp for the right to come to work looking like a slob.
Well, A&B and Troutman have both expanded to LA recently. WIll K&S make a move there or keep focusing on the Middle East? Anyone know how the Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Riydah offices are doing? What about Charlotte and Frankfurt which were opened in 2007? And now they opened SF, Silicon Valley and Austin all this year? Eight new offices in 2 years? How do they afford it?
A&B has blue jean Fridays? Ah, man. I definitely need to target them at OCI.
Any news to A&B Charlotte layoffs?
31 - come to work looking like a slob? How does the practice of law require a jacket? I'm sure your clients are really impressed by your "I'm a big boy now" suit and tie when they hear you on a conference call. Also, being allowed to wear jeans on Fridays makes them slobs? Repost your comments when they institute "Pajamas and Bare Feet" Fridays. Until then, chill out. That "serious lawyer" suit is going to your head.
No truth to the A&B associate layoff rumor - at all. I work at A&B.
12--I think part of it is that A&B thinks pretty highly of themselves, yet doesn't pay market in all (or any?) of its offices. They'll tell you that they do, but their bonus system is pretty terrible. Now, if this meant reduced hours while still being on partner track, fine, but if it ever existed it's probably gone now.
6:25 = on the chopping block
6:25 = on the chopping block
Wow. 31 must be big in the wallet, small in the pants.
Damn, my firm was going to swoop in and merge with Weston Bensh*****. Now how will we enter the highly coveted L.A. environmental litigation practice. We are doomed.
36 - What is going on at A&B Charlotte that everyone keeps referencing? If no layoffs then what? Is morale just down or what is happening?
Looks like A+B really is expanding like crazy. They just absorbed Akin Gump's Silicon Valley and Taipei offices.
A&B has been hoping for years to be courted and bought out by a top California firm. It's been a prominent subject at partners' retreats for years. Ken Britt, the Office Exec., has even mentioned this plan to staffers at their periodic cheerleading meetings.
Since A&B has obviously failed to convince anyone that it is an attractive prospect, that pipe dream hasn't come to fruition. They're now trying to compensate by cobbling together a Plan B - acquiring a 3rd rate CA firm, and, as with many of A&B's transparent inadequacies, the rhetoric flies in the face of reality, and this desperate ploy to claw its way into the ranks of top-tier "national" firms is loudly proclaimed yet another great firm success.
Can we say: "Delusions of grandeur?"
12:
A+B = Rich and Happy.
The concept confuses most of the douchebags on this website who think you have to teabag partners 16 hours a day to advance in this profession.
Can anyone elaborate on A&B layoffs in Charlotte?