Back in August, the law firms of Faegre & Benson and Baker & Daniels confirmed that they were engaged in merger talks. Today the firms announced that their partnerships have voted in favor of the combination.
The merger will take effect on January 1, 2012, and the new entity will be known as Faegre Baker Daniels. The website will be located at faegrebd.com (which right now is occupied by a GoDaddy.com placeholder page).
What will the new firm look like?
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It will be quite sizable. Based on a combination of the firms’ 2010 numbers, Faegre Baker Daniels should have gross revenues in excess of $400 million and attorney headcount of over 700 (assuming no significant layoffs in connection with the merger).
Here’s the short and sweet email that went around at Faegre & Benson this morning:
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In the video, which is available only on Faegre’s internal network, management committee chairman Andrew Humphrey talks about how excited both firms are and thanks everyone for their hard work leading up to the combination. (A tipster tells us, “I have a feeling he was just reading the press release verbatim.”)
Says a source at Faegre:
The joke around here seems to be the word “combination” — they don’t want to call it a merger, but Faegre is the one doing all of the technology unification (apparently BD has no infrastructure they care for themselves) and project management to make sure everything is completed. In my opinion, it’s a merger and we’re running the show.
It makes sense that Faegre would be in a dominant position. As noted back in August by Am Law, Faegre is significantly larger: it has around 450 lawyers, compared to Baker & Daniels’s 300 or so, and Faegre racked up $256.6 million in gross revenues in 2010, compared to $152.5 million for Baker & Daniels. The firms are well-matched in terms of profits per partner: Faegre had PPP in 2010 of $530,000, while Baker had PPP in 2010 of $520,000.
Congratulations and best wishes to Faegre & Benson and Baker & Daniels on their union.
UPDATE (2 PM): You can read more about the merger at Am Law Daily.
Baker & Daniels and Faegre & Benson Confirm Merger Talks [Am Law Daily]
Urge to Merge: Law Firm Tie-Ups Rose Nearly 80 Percent in 2011’s First Three Quarters [Am Law Daily]