Pillsbury Winthrop And Chadbourne & Parke Call Off Merger Talks

Today is just a bad day for law firms hoping to find that special merger partner. First Foley & Lardner walked away from Eversheds, and now Pillsbury and Chadbourne are calling it quits.

This is just getting sad for Pillsbury. When Chadbourne rolled up a couple months ago as the latest ersatz Mr. Darcy, we already compared Pillsbury to an “Old Maid,” and today’s news isn’t helping.

Way back in early 2012, Pillsbury entered talks with Fulbright & Jaworski. And that went nowhere.

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Then a little over two years ago, we reported on Pillsbury’s proposed merger with Orrick. And that fell through.

Winston & Strawn didn’t even try to buy the cow and got the milk for free with a massive lateral raid on Pillsbury.

And here we are again… with Pillsbury eagerly seeking a merger partner and every potential mate running for the hills. I’ve said before that I suspect there’s some merger workability issues with Pillsbury’s under leveraged staffing and that there may be insurmountable gaps in partner capital contributions. Whatever the reason, it seems to be a systemic problem in its merger efforts, so we can all look forward to the next flurry of merger talk and inevitable let down in, say, six or seven months.

Until then, here’s a GIF of the Pillsbury Doughboy getting constantly teased by the finger of a potential merger partner.