SmithAmundsen and the Indianapolis intellectual property firm of Brannon Sowers & Cracraft have agreed to a strategic alliance which will allow each firm to retain its identity while having access to the other’s attorneys and resources.
The year 2019 broke the record for U.S. law firm mergers and acquisitions with 115 combinations announced, including Indianapolis offices in some of the biggest deals unveiled.
When those in the legal community look back at 2019, they may turn their heads and look forward instead. While the year had bright spots, several sordid sagas dominated the headlines.
Faegre Baker Daniels and Philadelphia-based Drinker Biddle & Reath have officially announced the combination of their law firms following an affirmative vote by the partnerships of both organizations. The announcement comes about a month after murmurs began that such a move was underway.
Talks of a combination are underway between Minneapolis-based Faegre Baker Daniels and Philadelphia-based law firm Drinker Biddle & Reath, Indiana Lawyer confirmed Wednesday. A possible deal would mark the third since the beginning of the year among the top six law firms in the Indianapolis market.
The first steps that led to the combination of Bingham Greenebaum Doll with international giant Dentons were taken in the late spring of 2018, when Bingham leaders W. Tobin McClamroch and Keith Bice fielded a proposal from a friend. In the conference room of Bingham’s Indianapolis office, Joe Andrew, Dentons global chairman and former partner at Bingham Summers Welsh & Spilman, told the partners about the need he saw for a national law firm with offices across the country. No firm currently has an office in the top 20 markets even though, he said, clients are everywhere.
In a move that will transform the Indiana legal landscape, Bingham Greenebaum Doll has announced it will be combining with Dentons, the largest international law firm in the world.
The third quarter of 2019 posted a record-setting pace in the law firm mergers and acquisitions market with the combination of Indianapolis-based Taft Stettinius & Hollister and Minneapolis-based Briggs and Morgan leading the pack.
With its impending entrance into the Minneapolis market, Taft Stettinius & Hollister LLP is set to expand its footprint to 12 cities, grow its roster of attorneys to more than 600 and take a step closer to its goal of becoming a regionally dominant law firm. While law firm merger activity in the Hoosier State is increasing, the recently announced Taft deal is among the largest in recent years.
A federal judge has turned away a shareholder lawsuit over a major Indiana utility’s 2018 merger with a Texas-based public utility holding company, using a back-to-school analogy to reason his dismissal of the litigation.
After more than half a century of representing labor unions, working Hoosiers and public interest organizations, the Indianapolis law firm of Fillenwarth Dennerline Groth & Towe closed Sept. 1. However, two attorneys from the firm will be joining and helping transform Macey Swanson into Macey Swanson Hicks Sauer & Vlink LLP.
Taft Stettinius & Hollister has announced it will be expanding its footprint through a merger with the 135-attorney Minnesota law firm of Briggs and Morgan. Once the combination is completed Jan. 1, Taft will grow to more than 600 lawyers spread across 12 offices located primarily in the Midwest.
There were 20 new law firm combinations announced in the United States in the second quarter of 2019, according to Altman Weil’s MergerLine, falling slightly below reported numbers at the same time in previous years. In total, 47 deals were announced by mid-year.
Indiana law firms are absent from a record year of deals, but many are growing through lateral hires or picking up entire practice groups.
A caustic business dispute between brothers has resulted in one brother being held personally liable for a $7 million judgment after the 7th Court of Appeals found his conduct supported a piercing the corporate veil judgment against him.
A federal judge in Washington approved the $85 billion mega-merger of AT&T and Time Warner on Tuesday, potentially ushering in a wave of media consolidation while shaping how much consumers pay for streaming TV and movies.
The legal industry continued two trends in the first quarter of 2018 — the white-hot pace of law firm combinations is getting hotter, and none of the acquisitions involved a firm either based in Indiana or with an office in the Hoosier state.
After a bit of a slowdown in 2016, the pace of mergers and acquisitions among U.S. law firms accelerated again in 2017 to a record 102, according to Altman Weil MergerLine.
In the midst of an increase in the number of law firm mergers and acquisitions across the nation this year, two Indianapolis-area firms have announced that they have joined forces.
The merger between Evansville-based Bamberger Foreman Oswald & Hahn LLP and Kentucky-based Stoll Keenon Ogden PLLC was completed Tuesday, one month ahead of the expected closure date.