This week brings more law firm merger news. These two deals are hardly earth-shattering, but they are noteworthy (and coincidentally both involve firms with "Sanders" somewhere in their name -- the Colonel would be proud).

One of them may create a new Am Law 100 firm, as noted today by the American Lawyer:

The recently merged Husch Blackwell Sanders has merged once again, this time with Chicago-based intellectual property litigation boutique Welsh & Katz, the firms announced Monday. If ranked today, the combined firm, now called Husch Blackwell Sanders Welsh & Katz, would place 88th on The American Lawyer's Am Law 100 list, according to their combined gross revenues.

Firm co-chair David Fenley says the gross revenue will "be a smidgen beyond $300 million" in 2008, which, if ranked today, would place it above Pepper Hamilton's current $297 million, the firm with the 88th-highest revenue in 2007, and below Littler Mendelson's $305 million, which placed 87th.

The shops sound well-matched:

Both their personalities and the firm cultures meshed, adds [managing partner A. Sidney] Katz. For one, neither firm maintains any debt. And both firms focus on attorneys' quality of life above profitability, he explains. Further, profits per partner at both firms are in the $600,000 to $700,000 range and Husch agreed to take on all of Welsh's 14 equity principals (the firm is organized as a corporation) as equity partners.

Ah, the elusive "quality of life." Our second featured merger, combining Troutman Sanders (Am Law #75) and Ross Dixon & Bell, led one tipster to express concern on that front:

It just seems a little alarming that all the mid-size and smaller firms are getting gobbled up. Makes me wonder if it's even possible to have a smaller "quality of life" firm (which is how Ross Dixon billed itself when it spun off from Hogan). (See also Kelley Drye buying out Collier Shannon Scott in DC).

From this morning's press release announcing the deal:

The law firms of Troutman Sanders LLP and Ross, Dixon & Bell, LLP announced today they will merge, creating a 750-attorney firm with national and international reach and unparalleled depth.

The merger, approved by the partnerships at both firms and effective Jan. 1, 2009, combines Troutman Sanders' multi-faceted corporate, finance, litigation, real estate and public policy practices with Ross, Dixon & Bell's exceptional insurance, professional liability and commercial litigation practices, among other synergies.... The merged firm will be named Troutman Sanders LLP and will remain headquartered in Atlanta. It will have about 1,700 employees.

More opinions on the Troutman Sanders / Ross Dixon combination, plus links to articles and press releases, below the fold.

There are vague rumors of something afoot at Heller Ehrman. Could the persistent gossip about a merger finally come true? Last week brought this report from TheLawyer.com:

The chairman of US firm Heller Ehrman has refused to rule out a merger after respected litigator Paul Alexander became the seventeenth partner to leave the firm this year. The firm lost 25 partners in 2007 and has lost 17 this year after Alexander quit to join Howrey in Palo Alto. [Ed. note: See links collected at the end of this post for more coverage of partner departures.]

Heller chairman Matt Larrabee told The Lawyer that a merger was one of the options his firm was considering, but maintained that no decision had been taken at this point in time....

The rumour mill has put Heller in talks with a number of firms and Larrabee's refusal to deny that Heller is currently in merger talks will only add to the widely held belief that the firm is nearing a deal.

But it won't be the previously rumored merger with Winston & Strawn, which Heller sources tell us is history. Another possible suitor: Proskauer Rose, which emerged in speculation last month. One Heller tipster likes the idea, noting good geographical fit -- Heller's California and Asia presences nicely complement Proskauer's East Coast focus -- and practice group compatibility ("e.g., pro-policy holder insurance coverage, similar patent practices").

Heller chairman Larrabee told the Lawyer: "I can categorically deny that Heller has concluded we must merge." But internally the message is a bit different. Associates were told in a recent video conference that "the firm is definitely looking to merge, that it is an 'awkward' size for the market."

In the meantime, Heller Ehrman continues to go about its business, including major pro bono matters. For example, working together with the Public Interest Law Project and Bay Area Legal Aid, the firm just filed a lawsuit against Alameda County, challenging the planned termination of general assistance benefits to thousands of indigent individuals. More details here.

Heller chairman coy over merger rumours [The Lawyer]
The bigger the better [The Lawyer]
Culture Wars Take Their Toll on Heller Ehrman [American Lawyer]
Morning Wrap: Partner Defections [The BLT / Blog of the Legal Times]
Heller's Tempestuous San Diego Office Loses 4 [Legal Pad / Cal Law]

Merger talks between K&L Gates and Kennedy Covington are underway. From a tipster at K&L Gates:

Merger mania strikes again, although it's not exactly major. See this press release.

I find it interesting that we are expanding into this region, especially because of the recent high-profile layoffs and other cutbacks happening at other firms in North Carolina.

The tipster has a point. It's an odd time for K&L Gates to be diving deeper into the banking / financial-services area and the NC legal market, considering all the turmoil they've seen over the past few months.

But sometimes it pays to zig when everyone else zags -- which may also explain the trend of some firms building up their structured-finance groups. The work has to come back at some point, doesn't it?

Kennedy Covington and K&L Gates Discuss Combining Firms [Kennedy Covington; see also K&L Gates]

Here's an update to yesterday's post about rumors of possible merger talks between Heller Ehrman and Winston & Strawn. Remember, of course, that these are just rumors -- nothing more. Neither firm has offered any substantive comment. So please don't get too excited.

First, as reported by Legal Pad, the domain names of WinstonHeller.com and HellerWinston.com -- previously snapped up by an anonymous buyer -- are available once again. Legal Pad speculates:

Does the unURLing mean any merger is off? Dunno. If we were going to engage in unfounded speculation (one of the main reasons the Internet gods created blogs), we'd say low-grade talks had occurred, so someone grabbed the URLs, then decided to un-grab 'em just to quiet all the, um, unfounded speculation. Working great so far!

Second, just this afternoon, the following email from Winston's managing partner, Tom Fitzgerald, went around the firm:

From: Thompson, Nadja On Behalf Of Thomas Fitzgerald
Sent: Wednesday, April 23, 2008 1:49 PM
To: All Business FIRM
Subject:

This morning you may have noticed on the W&S Update an article published referencing the purchase of the domain names "WinstonHeller.com" and "HellerWinston.com," along with rumors of a potential merger between the two firms. W&S Update is an online service that reports all articles about W&S, regardless of content or veracity.

We feel it is important to notify our employees and attorneys that the firm did not secure, nor was it involved in securing, any domain names, including those referenced in the article. We are constantly contacted by other law firms, attorneys, and professional search firms to look at business opportunities which we explore as appropriate. As a matter of policy the firm does not acknowledge or otherwise comment on rumors regarding internal firm business or its clients.

Our tipster's take: "[A] rather shady explanation. They don't address the substance of the rumors, just that they didn't secure the domain names."

Right now we have nothing more than rumors. When we have something more substantive to report, we'll let you know.

Who Dumped WinstonHeller.com ... and Why? [Legal Pad / Cal Law]

Earlier: Law Firm Merger Mania: Winston and Heller, Sitting in a Tree? M-e-r-g-i-n-g?

You're already discussing the rumors in the comments to an unrelated post. So we figure we should probably give you a proper forum for such discussion.

In an earlier post, we alluded to merger rumors involving Heller Ehrman. We didn't name the supposed merger partner at the time, but Legal Pad just did:

Last Friday, wondering about continuing rumors of a Heller Ehrman merger with Chicago’s Winston & Strawn, we decided to check whether anyone had registered any interesting new domain names like, saaaay, www.hellerwinston.com or www.winstonheller.com.

Turns out that only the day before, both were registered to Domains by Proxy, a company which allows privacy-seeking customers to register sites using the company’s contact information. A commenter on Above the Law noted the same discovery Saturday, so when we got to work on Monday, we made some calls. A spokesman for Heller said the firm was not involved.

“We did not authorize any Web company or outside third party to purchase any particular domain or register any Web site,” he said.

Not them? Isn’t cyber-squatting so 1998?

Why the interest in domain name registrations? As you may recall, ATL broke the story of the Dewey Ballantine / LeBoeuf Lamb merger based on a domain name registration. They can be a useful clue to possible law firm combinations.

More discussion, after the jump.

Corporate work may be a bit slow these days, but deal lawyers are still in demand -- and moving around. Reported yesterday over at Legal Pad:

Four corporate and securities partners are leaving Heller Ehrman for DLA Piper in San Diego. The office has been plagued by instability — and defections — in recent years due to the addition in recent years of attorneys from Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison and the Venture Law Group.

Three of the departing attorneys — Michael Kagnoff, Jeffrey Thacker and Ross Burningham — were among a handful of former Brobeck partners considering leaving Heller’s San Diego office after clashing with a managing partner there, Cal Law reported last May.

Heller Managing Partner Rob Hubbell confirmed on Thursday that the trio, and Brobeck veteran Martin Nichols, had announced their exit. “These guys are leaving, but we have a strong practice in that office and we’re quite confident in that office,” he said....

At least 13 attorneys, nearly all partners, have left the firm in 2008, including four sitting practice chairpersons and one former practice head.

In other Heller news, we've heard rumors of possible merger talks involving the firm. But they're a bit vague right now, so we will refrain from mentioning the few specifics that we have heard. If you have any details, feel free to email us. Thanks.

Heller's Tempestuous San Diego Office Loses 4 [Legal Pad / Cal Law]

Here's some recent associate pay raise news from Locke Lord Bissell & Liddell (the entity formed by the merger last year of Texas-based Locke Liddell & Sapp and Chicago-based Lord Bissell & Brook):

Attached is a memo from, purportedly, the Locke Lord Bissell & Liddell (the new combined firm) management regarding associate salary increases. Despite the fact that it is being issued from the new combined firm, the memo only relates to the Locke Liddell associates and is completely silent as to raises for the Lord Bissell associates. We found this unbelievable, especially considering the new firm's internal tag line is "One Firm, One Future."

To put it simply, the LLS side is getting salaries increased across the board, albeit on a deferred comp scale, and the LBB side is getting nothing....

Nothing like dual compensation policies (well, at least one comp policy) for associates at the same (purported) firm!!!! That will surely make already declining morale even better.

Update: This post is the subject of a correction. See here.

Check out the memo for yourself, after the jump.

Still no bonus announcement from Mayer Brown. But check out this intriguing email, sent out in the last hour:

From: D'Esposito, Jr., Julian C.
Sent: Thursday, December 20, 2007 12:41 PM
To: FW-Assocs; FW-Cnsl
Cc: Holzhauer, James D.; Geller, Kenneth S.; Maher, Paul; Favoriti, Gail A.; Pepper, Margery; Madden, Emilie S.; Dabrowski, Heidi M.; Reichert, Kathleen S.; Harris, Robert; Staiano, David; Couleur, Nancy Jo; Belic, Indira; Burdett, Shannon T.; Burkes, Eugenia; Corby, Candice; Harris, Russell; Holthaus, John H.; Kennedy, Clinton D.; Kislow, Connie; Ku, Alice; Loessl, Angela-Katrin; Tulic, Vesna; Watson, John; Wells, Stephen R.

Subject: Firmwide Meeting on Friday, December 21

Please plan to attend a Firmwide video presentation by the office of the Chairman on December 21 that will describe an exciting, transformational event for the Firm. The meeting will begin promptly at 8am PST, 10am CST, 11 am EST, 2pm BRST, 4 GMT, 5 CET and 12 am Saturday HKST. The Director of Administration will inform you of the location of the meeting in your office. If you are out of the office, there will be a limited number of dial-in lines, the number for which can be obtained from the DoA. You should receive an Outlook calendar notice of this meeting later today.

____________________________________________
Julian C. D'Esposito
Mayer Brown LLP
71 S. Wacker
Chicago, IL 60606

What could this "exciting, transformational event" be? We assume it's not the recent indictment of partner Joseph Collins, since that's already public.

Maybe a merger is in the works? It wouldn't be the first in the firm's history. The firm's former name, Mayer Brown Rowe & Maw, reflected the merger of U.S.-based Mayer, Brown & Platt with U.K.-based Rowe & Maw.

Update: One tipster speculates:

I have no idea, but it is of course intriguing. Maybe we're going public. (That would apply only to the English LLP of course. I think that it may be possible in the future but hadn't seen any change in the law that would allow it now.)

So maybe it's a merger. Or possibly the "exciting" change is that they are not going to give bonuses any more.

That would be "exciting" news -- to rival firms, looking to raid the ranks of Mayer Brown lawyers.

Further Update: We've learned that tonight is the holiday party for the New York office. And still no word about bonuses...

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]

* Crazy pro se lawsuit against Google, seeking $5 billion in damages, touches upon the war on terror and a Burton snowboard. And no, it wasn't filed by Jonathan Lee Riches. [TechDirt]

* A misdemeanor count of cruelty to animals? Guess he wasn't that good. [Denver Channel]

* Law professors get their academic gowns in a wad over the gender divide in faculty hiring. [TaxProf Blog]

* Dewey LeBoeuf? Already done it. [WSJ Law Blog]

* Debevoise & Plimpton lords it over the competition. [Times of London]

Here's some law firm merger scuttlebutt that's making the rounds:

Rumor is that White & Case is acquiring Moore & Van Allen, a native Charlotte firm with a national syndicated finance practice. Any truth to this?

We reached out to both firms for comment. A White & Case spokesperson issued this statement:

"We do not respond to inquiries of this kind."

Should we take that as a "yes"?

If we hear back from Moore & Van Allen, we'll let you know. If you have any info, please email us. Thanks.

1. Back in May, Locke Liddell & Sapp, of Houston and Dallas, and Lord, Bissell & Brook, of Chicago, announced plans to merge. Those plans have now been finalized, and the merger will take effect on October 2.

Sadly, they didn't take our advice about that unwieldy name: the new firm will be known as Locke Lord Bissell & Liddell. More details appear in the Texas Lawyer.

2. Some readers were impressed by the ability to earn $160,000 in Connecticut, by working in the Stamford office of Paul Hastings.

Guess it was too good to last. PH is closing its Stamford office effective December 3rd. We contacted the firm for comment, and they issued this statement:

"As transactions and cases become more sophisticated and global in scope, they require large teams of attorneys and deeper resources. We have decided to consolidate our New York and Stamford offices in order to better serve our client's growing needs."

Paul Hastings in Stamford, RIP.

Locke Liddell and Lord, Bissell Finalize Merger [Texas Lawyer]

Earlier: Law Firm Merger Mania: Locke Liddell + Lord Bissell

People in the offices of both Dewey Ballantine and LeBoeuf Lamb have been gossiping about a possible merger between their firms.

Here's some circumstantial evidence in support of the rumors. If you go to Whois.Net and enter the domain name DeweyLeBoeuf.com, you get this info:

We have a call and an email in to Michael Groll. We'll let you know if and when we hear back from him.

Update: Might this be a practical joke, as one commenter suggests? Quite possibly. That's why we've reached out to Mr. Groll for comment.

Further Update (4:45 PM): No, this is the real deal. About an hour after our post went up, the WSJ Law Blog chimed in with this write-up: "LeBoeuf Lamb and Dewey Ballantine are in merger talks, with an announcement of a deal expected as early as Monday, according to people familiar with the situation."

Further Further Update (8/25/07): The New York Times has an article on the merger talks here.

More discussion, plus links, after the jump.

We've confirmed the news that Akin Gump has raised in Texas. Here's the message from Bruce McLean, the Akin Gump chairman:

We are pleased to announce that we will be increasing associate and counsel compensation effective August 1, 2007. For first and second years, compensation will increase to $160,000 and $170,000, respectively. For subsequent years, we intend to be competitive in the market. We are in the process of determining the contours of the compensation structure for our other associate classes consistent with our Firm culture and the evolving market.

We appreciate all that you do to make this a great Firm.

In other Biglaw Texas news, Hughes & Luce is in merger talks with K&L Gates.

Hughes & Luce in Merger Talks With K&L Gates [Texas Lawyer]

The latest Biglaw combination brings together more "L"s than you can shake a stick at. From the Texas Lawyer:

Locke Liddell & Sapp, based in Houston and Dallas, and Chicago-based Lord, Bissell & Brook have agreed to merge, and will form a 700-lawyer firm named Locke Lord Bissell & Liddell.

Hmm, that's a mouthful -- the marketing people might want to rethink things. The alliteration and internal rhyme make the firm name far too "busy."

Correction: Based on the comments, it appears that we're wrong about the internal rhyme. But we still think the new firm name is unwieldy.

Some reactions to more substantive aspects of the deal, after the jump.

* Dahlia Lithwick on SCOTUS and the death penalty. [Slate]

* A panel of the Seventh Circuit is made up entirely of Sixth Circuit judges sitting by designation. Of course, recusal seems to make sense when the defendant plotted to attack the Seventh Circuit's courthouse. [How Appealing]

* Novak testifies: he got the info from Armitage and Rove. [CNN]

* Pay the judges! [WSJ Law Blog]

* I've my got my mind on my merger and my merger's on my mind. [Law.com]

After the much ballyhooed merger between Dewey Ballantine and Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe fell apart, many theories were bandied about as to why the deal disintegrated. See, e.g., here.

Now, from a British legal publication, The Lawyer, we get this fascinating report:

Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe chairman Ralph Baxter demanded a guaranteed $25m (£12.92m) payout over five years, had the proposed merger with Dewey Ballantine gone through, The Lawyer can reveal.

Orrick's management drafted an employment agreement for Baxter and Dewey chairman Mort Pierce to sign, which would have committed both partners to the newly merged firm for five years.

Pierce is understood to have refused to sign, prompted by the dissatisfaction of a number of Dewey partners with the terms of the agreement.

The significant remuneration for a non-fee-earning chairman is thought to have contributed to Dewey's decision to walk away from the merger with Orrick.

Pierce is known to be the highest earner at Dewey, earning an extra $3m (£1.54m) in one year in bonuses alone. But he is also the highest biller, averaging more than 3,000 chargeable hours a year.

Balking at Ralph Baxter's rich demand is understandable. But in hindsight, one can't help wonder whether Dewey shouldn't have just bent over and grabbed its proverbial socks. The DB partners who have walked out the door in the past few weeks probably took with them books of business totalling well over Baxter's concededly greedy demand.

But the $25 million wasn't the end of it. Check this out:

For Dewey, the combination of Baxter's personal demands, which also included unlimited first-class air travel for himself and at least one family member, and the perceived imbalance in terms of post-merger management were the final straw in scuppering a deal that could have produced a $1bn (£514.5m)-turnover firm, which could have been in the global top 10.

Quips an amused tipster: "I laughed when I saw Baxter's personal demand of unlimited first class travel for him + 1.
Seriously, does he think he's Gnarls Barkley or what?"

Revealed: Baxter killed Dewey-Orrick merger [TheLawyer.com]

Last week was short, thanks to the New Year's holiday; but it sure was busy. Here are some highlights from a very momentous week:

* No more jokes about Harriet Miers: the ill-fated ex-SCOTUS nominee has resigned as White House counsel. Speculation about her successor abounds.

* No more jokes about the Dewy Orifice: the ill-fated merger between Dewey Ballantine and Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe has been called off.

* Turns out that Chief Justice Rehnquist was a painkiller junkie. Once, while suffering withdrawal symptoms, he tried to bust out of a hospital in his PJs.

* Chief Judge David Levi, of the Eastern District of California, will be the new Dean of Duke Law School.

* All About Jan? Just as the aging Margo Channing's reign over Broadway was threatened by the comely Eve Harrington, the aging Linda Greenhouse's reign over One First Street is being threatened by the comely Jan Crawford Greenburg.

* Who knew? Law professors and legal bloggers sure know how to party! Photos of drunken legal academics available here and here.

* Cravath partner John Beerbower has enjoyed some amazing apartments over the years. Cravath partnership + Wealthy wife = $20 million, Park Avenue pad.

* Who's your favorite First Circuit judge? Cast your vote here.

* If you're a right-winger hoping that Justice Stevens will step down soon, don't hold your breath.

* Today's D.C. Circuit: Despite the occasional catfight, it's not as bitchy as it used to be. Sigh.

* Oppressed law clerks, your Devil Wears Prada is on its way. Coming soon to a bookstore near you: Chambermaid, by former Third Circuit clerk Saira Rao.

Why did the merger between Dewey Ballantine and Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe die on the vine?

Traditional theory: Dewey's loss of key partners, such as M&A stars Michael Aiello and Jack Bodner, made it a much less attractive merger partner. Why buy a cow after the milk has dried up? See here.

Revisionist theory: It was that godawful nickname, "Dewy Orifice" -- a clear sign that the gods did not look favorably upon this union. See here.

We got our hands on the email that went around at Dewey Ballantine this afternoon, announcing the death of this combination. You can check it out after the jump.

Via the WSJ Law Blog, here's the text of the two firms' joint statement:

Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP and Dewey Ballantine LLP have jointly decided to end merger discussions. Both firms are successful, global firms that saw great potential in a combination. However, a combination of this size and scope posed significant challenges. While both firms tried their best to work through these challenges, we were unable to bring the merger to completion. No one issue led us to this point, and each firm leaves this process with great respect for the leaders and partners of the other.

This is very bad news for Dewey. Uncertainty in the wake of the merger caused several of their top partners, including leading M&A lawyers, to leave for other firms. So Dewey is now worse off than it was before the announcement of the merger -- and now without a merger partner.

At first we thought: Orrick is like a Lothario who seduced Dewey, gave her a loathsome disease, and then dumped her.

But then a Dewey tipster told us:

The word is that Orrick is unhappy with the M&A partners who have left. Mort [Pierce] asked [Ralph] Baxter to come up with a counter proposal, but Baxter [didn't produce an adequate alternative].

So now we think: Orrick is like a Lothario who seduced Dewey, gave her a loathsome disease, and then dumped her. When Dewey asked Orrick, "Why are you dumping me?", Orrick responded: "Why would I want you? You're damaged goods. And you have a loathsome disease!"

Earlier: Prior coverage of the Dewey-Orrick merger (scroll down)