Law Firm Mergers

Winston Reportedly Makes Offers to Over 75 Percent of Howrey Partners

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In our last story on the trials and tribulations of Howrey, we expressed doubt that a full-on merger between Howrey and Winston & Strawn would take place. We suggested that Winston would probably wind up “picking up large chunks of Howrey, maybe even entire offices — just like Sonnenschein picked up 100 lawyers from Thacher Proffitt, during TPW’s final days.”

And that appears to be what’s happening now. According to The Recorder, Winston extended individual offers to a little over 75 percent of Howrey partners over the weekend.

And what about the remaining 25 percent? A recruiter familiar with the situation told The Recorder that they either have conflicts issues or aren’t interested in winding up at Winston.

What else do we know about the situation?

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Howrey Going to Make This Merger Happen?
(Plus two interesting internal emails.)

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Developments are flying fast and furious out of Howrey. Yesterday we passed along reports that Howrey’s merger talks with Winston & Strawn were off. Today we’re hearing that they might be back on (or that they never stopped in the first place).

According to the U.K.-based Legal Week (via the ABA Journal), the talks are ongoing. The parties are represented by Thomas Fitzgerald, managing partner of Winston, and Sean Boland, vice chairman of Howrey. Winston is apparently attracted to antitrust at Howrey, an area where Winston wants to expand.

Corroboration of continued Winston / Howrey discussions from a U.S. source, plus some interesting internal emails from Howrey leadership, after the jump.

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(Plus two interesting internal emails.)“

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Howrey Going to Get Out of This Pickle?

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When we last wrote about goings-on at Howrey, the once-strong law firm that’s now experiencing troubled times, we mentioned the possibility of partner losses in the Chicago office. The firm pushed back on this, denying knowledge of any imminent defections in the Windy City.

It now seems, however, that additional partner departures may be on the horizon — in Chicago, and elsewhere too. As reported in Crain’s Chicago Business (via WSJ Law Blog), the Chi-town powerhouse of Winston & Strawn recently discussed a possible merger with Howrey — but then decided against that approach, opting instead to pick off specific groups and partners from Howrey.

The Howrey situation is starting to look a lot like what happened to Heller Ehrman. A well-respected firm with a widely admired culture encounters business difficulties. Key partners and groups (especially IP) start leaving for greener pastures or more stable platforms. A potential white knight emerges — Mayer Brown in Heller’s case, and Winston & Strawn in Howrey’s — but then decides to order a la carte from the menu of partners, practices and offices, instead of going for the chef’s tasting menu.

A distressed employee of the firm sets up a blog to serve as a clearinghouse for updates. Heller had Heller Highwater, and Howrey had Howrey Doin’.

But now it looks like Howrey Doin’ is… done. If you surf over to http://howreydoin.wordpress.com/, the blog’s former address, you learn that “[t]he authors have deleted this blog.”

What the heck happened? We have a statement from the author of the blog, as well as a response from the firm.

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Non-Sequiturs: 01.07.11

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* Elie here: Remember yesterday when I said that it was a prick move by the cop to issue that ticket on the mother of that comatose 13-year-old girl, and then all those commenters said the cops had no choice because issuing the ticket was an important matter in terms of the civil liability of the driver? Yeah, well, I stand by my initial analysis that the cop was a jerkhat. [New York Personal Injury Law Blog]

* We were unimpressed by Holland & Knight giving iPads to its associates — and we’re not alone. [South Florida Lawyers]

* The merger talks between Reed Smith and Thompson & Knight are apparently off (assuming this isn’t another case of Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton). [Am Law Daily]

* How can lawyers dress to impress in 2011? [Lawyerist]

* So let me get this straight, it’s not okay for me to drink Four Loko and drive, but it’s okay for my car to do it? What’s up with that? [Alt Transport]

* Were passports biased against gays? Well, now they won’t be. [Huffington Post]

* If you’ve been following along with the most important news of today — which is obviously that the study showing that a crying woman is a total buzzkill — here’s an important counterpoint. Crying might be nature’s way of saying: “Stop beating on your wife you freaking a**hole. [Newsweek]

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Law Firm Merger Mania: Would a Nixon Peabody/Locke Lord Merger Make Sense?

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Yesterday we reported on a change in management at Nixon Peabody. We understand that some people at Nixon hope that the shift at the top will be followed by a return to Nixon Peabody’s old law firm culture.

But maybe NP people will have to get ready to assimilate into an entirely different culture? A well-placed tipster reports that some Locke Lord partners were told that the firm is exploring a possible merger with Nixon Peabody.

Locke Lord denies the rumor, while Nixon Peabody won’t comment. But our sources have been right before, especially when it comes to potential mergers…

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A Hiccup for the Transatlantic Trend: Proskauer and SJ Berwin Call Off Merger Talks

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Bridget Jones found herself a super-fit Brit, but Proskauer is still looking for a U.K. mate.

In 2011, lawyers at Proskauer Rose will enjoy snazzy, firm-provided iPads. But they won’t be able to look forward to an influx of British colleagues with super-posh accents.

As reported by Legal Week, Proskauer and SJ Berwin have called off their merger talks, after nine long months of discussions. The extensive snogging will not culminate in shagging.

This year has seen lots of action on the transatlantic merger front — e.g., Hogan Lovells, SNR Denton, and Squire Sanders Hammonds. But it looks like Proskauer Berwin — or Berwin Proskauer, or SJ Proskauer? — will not be coming to pass.

(Unless the firms pull a Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton or a Newsweek Daily Beast, and merge with each other anyway after declaring their talks dead.)

So what led to the demise of the Proskauer / SJ Berwin merger talks?

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Law Firm Merger Mania: Squire Sanders and Hammonds Tie the Transatlantic Knot

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Peter Crossley of Hammonds and James Maiwurm of Squire Sanders

A hot trend for the law firm world in 2010: transatlantic mergers. This year we’ve seen the creation of Hogan Lovells, from Hogan & Hartson and Lovells, and SNR Denton, from Sonnenschein and Denton Wilde. Today we learn of a third U.S./U.K. law firm merger: the combination of Squire, Sanders & Dempsey and the British firm of Hammonds, to form a behemoth with 1,275 lawyers in 37 offices and 17 countries (according to the merged firm’s new website).

The merger was approved by both partnerships over the weekend and will take effect on January 1, 2011. The combined entity will be in the top 25 firms by number of lawyers, with gross revenue of $625 million (based on 2009 figures).

As you may recall, not everyone was a fan of this merger. The famously outspoken John Quinn of Quinn Emanuel, for example, characterized it as “[t]wo rocks that think if they hug each other tight enough they won’t sink.”

But enough of the Debbie Downer sentiments. Let’s look at all the positive aspects of this transaction, shall we?

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Law Firm Merger Mania: Kilpatrick Stockton Merges with Townsend and Townsend and Crew

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Remember back in May when we told you that Kilpatrick Stockton was in merger talks with Townsend and Townsend and Crew? But we had to say they “might” be in talks because nobody would go on the record confirming them? Then in July we told you that they definitely had been in talks, but the firms said: no, no, no, those talks have fallen apart?

Well, here we are in November and, surprise, Kilpatrick Stockton is merging with Townsend and Townsend and Crew.

The lesson: you can believe Above the Law or you can believe the double-speak nonsense coming out of the mouths of firm leaders…

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This Week in Biglaw: 10.10.10

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Ed. note: Law Shucks focuses on life in, and after, Biglaw, including by tracking layoffs, bonuses, and laterals. Above the Law is pleased to bring you this weekly column, which analyzes news at the world’s top law firms.

Despite this being the busy season for the hiring and (in the few firms that cling to the traditional calendar) onboarding processes, things have been relatively quiet lately. Actually, we almost forgot about deferred associates – some of the members of the "lost" Class of 2009 are finally starting to trickle back to BigLaw.

Bimodal distribution is still the bugaboo of the legal industry. In the BigLaw section of the curve (i.e., that big spike out to the right), the good news for incoming associates is that $160,000 is still the norm for the largest firms in the top markets, despite some drift back to the left over the past few years as firms dropped down to $145,000. Don’t expect to hear cries of "NY to 180k" for at least a little while yet, even though the official word is that the recession ended in June 2009 (which coincides closely with the end of the peak of law firm layoffs). Flat is still the new up, and most of 21 managing partners who did an impromptu straw poll are optimistic.

Those salaries have to be supported by income, though. And no place beats New York for billable rates.

Unless you count the entertainment industry. Then, $900/hour is a bargain compared to the traditional commission-based structure for literary agents.

After the jump, we focus exclusively on the firms this week. No client work – we’ve got rankings, mergers, laterals, and, of course, layoffs.

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Quote of the Day: I don’t know anything about sports, but that sounds like a bad idea.

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It’s like picking up a whole baseball team just to get a shortstop.

– an anonymous partner at Akin Gump, commenting on the failed merger talks with Orrick.

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