In an interesting interview last fall with Bloomberg Big Law Business, the CEO of Greenberg Traurig, Richard Rosenbaum, sounded skeptical notes about growth through international law firm mergers. Discussing GT’s refusal to follow the Biglaw herd, he commented that “the most important [trend] that we didn’t follow was massive growth overseas. It’s our opinion that you are not benefiting clients by having hundreds and hundreds, and sometimes thousands of lawyers, in China or all throughout the world.”
Now, a few months later, Greenberg Traurig is in merger talks with the overseas law firm of Berwin Leighton Paisner — a merger that, if consummated, would result in a firm of between 2,500 and 3,000 lawyers (assuming no major layoffs or departures). A firm of such size would be one of the world’s top 10 in terms of headcount.
In fairness to Rosenbaum, he did offer a caveat to his criticism of mergers (emphasis added): “Your clients are not benefited by having firm after firm having thousands of lawyers in these places, unless you are excellent in all these places. And I can assure you that most of the firms that have those massive footprints are not excellent in all those places.”
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So would a deal between Greenberg Traurig and Berwin Leighton Paisner result in that sought-after excellence and the ubiquitous business buzzword, “synergy”? Bloomberg notes that both firms excel in real estate and are strong in other transactional practices too, including corporate finance, M&A, and private equity. Am Law sizes up BLP as “a solid, upper midmarket firm with one of the U.K.’s stronger real estate practices,” but notes that “in recent years it has underperformed financially.”
Greenberg Traurig seems to be in an acquisitive mood lately, as reflected in its recent hiring of Rudy Giuliani and Marc Mukasey away from Bracewell & Giuliani, where former NYC mayor Giuliani was a name partner. Will Greenberg move forward with the BLP deal? The firm said in a statement that it’s “working to assess the merits of this opportunity over the coming months and, if it moves forward, it will share more information.”
UPDATE (2/4/2016, 10:10 a.m.): There’s a reason why Greenberg Traurig is a top-ranked law firm for social media use. Last night, CEO Richard Rosenbaum took to Twitter to discuss the possible BLP tie-up with me and Casey Sullivan of Bloomberg:
https://twitter.com/RARosenbaum_CEO/status/695042832042696704
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https://twitter.com/RARosenbaum_CEO/status/695042974883909632
https://twitter.com/RARosenbaum_CEO/status/695203442512502786
To read all of his tweets about the merger talks — these are just highlights — follow him: @RARosenbaum_CEO. How many Biglaw leaders do you know who are on Twitter?
Greenberg Traurig is in Early Talks to Tie Up with London Law Firm [Big Law Business / Bloomberg BNA]
Greenberg Traurig Confirms Tie-Up Talks With British Firm [American Lawyer]
Rudolph Giuliani to Join Greenberg Traurig Law Firm [DealBook / New York Times]