Hogan & Hartson and Lovells in Merger Talks
The Washington, D.C.-based law firm Hogan & Hartson is in merger talks with Lovells, a law firm based in the United Kingdom.
The two law firms have confirmed the merger talks, informally initiated several months ago, according to The BLT: The Blog of Legal Times. The combined law firms would have more than 2,500 lawyers and would have had combined revenues of $1.9 billion last year, putting it in the top 10 for revenues.
Lovells will discuss the proposed merger at a meeting on Oct. 28, Legal Week reports. The story says both firms were enthusiastic, but are aware that cross-Atlantic law firm mergers are difficult because of differing partner compensation and accounting models.
Several partners jumped to new law firms when Clifford Chance merged with New York’s Rogers & Wells and Germany’s Pünder, Volhard, Weber & Axster, the National Law Journal (sub. req.) reports. The problems were due to differing compensation systems and cultural differences. DLA kept separate profit pools for overseas and U.S. operations when it merged with Piper Rudnick Gray Cary, and the new firm “has performed strongly,” the story says.
Hogan & Hartson’s chairman, J. Warren Gorrell Jr., spoke to the NLJ on Monday, before news of the merger talks became public. He said Hogan had established offices in most key markets, including London, New York and Germany, but the firm needed to obtain a “critical mass” of lawyers in those locations.
“We think this is a good time to be focused on expansion,” he said.
