If 2015 belongs to any law firm on the global stage, it’s Dentons. In a move that solidifies their place as the largest and one of the most ambitious law firms to emerge since the recession, Dentons has voted to merge with Atlanta-based McKenna Long & Aldridge LLP. The resultant firm will number approximately 6,600 attorneys, with roughly one-sixth of them based in the U.S.
In the ensuing five years post-recession, more law firms have considered resorting to consolidation as a way to address relatively flat market demand. Dentons itself was borne from such a merger in 2013 with the tie-up of Salans LLP, SNR Denton, and Candian firm Fraser Milner Casgrain LLP. Then, in January, Dentons announced a merger with the 4,000-strong Chinese legal powerhouse, Dacheng
As reported in the Wall Street Journal Blog, “Our goal was not only to make sure we can grow, but to demonstrate the importance of momentum,” said Joseph Andrew, Dentons’s global chairman, of the latest deal.
A previous attempt to merge the firms was abandoned in 2013. As McKenna Long Chairman Jeffrey Haidet remarked of the prior deal, “it was such a…change in our current thinking and direction, we had to regroup.” One thorny aspect was Dentons’s structure as a verein, an association of independent legal entities for specifically defined purposes—generally, marketing and branding in nature.
However, Mr. Haidet said that by 2014 McKenna leaders realized a merger with a larger firm was what McKenna wanted, and firm leaders resumed talks with Dentons in January.
Once combined, the new firm will have 125 locations in more than 50 countries. The merger of Dentons US and McKenna Long is expected to be effective later in 2015.
Dentons reported $1.275 billion in revenue in 2014, which does not include the approximately $400 million brought in by Dacheng.
