Biglaw

Chadbourne and Pillsbury May Be the Latest Firms to Merge

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By Amanda Griffin

Posted on September 24, 2015

Summary: With a growing trend of U.S. law firms merging to consolidate financial resources and expand their international presence, firms Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman and Chadbourne & Parke may be the next to join the band wagon.

Law firms Chadbourne & Parke and Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman have been trying to reach an agreement so the two firms can merge. Previous negotiations have failed, but the firms are at it again trying to make the deal work.

It appears that the talks are going better this time around and a deal could be struck by October. One former partner at Chadbourne says that he heard the news from an internal source at the firm. The firm reportedly created a committee of around six partners to negotiate the deal with Pillsbury before they were willing to admit anything to the public.

The story was first reported by Bloomberg BNA’s Big Law Business. If they do merge, they will have roughly 930 lawyers and an $814 million annual gross revenue. The combined firm would move up to 37^th on the Am Law 100 rankings, between Cooley and Proskauer Rose. The Am Law Daily has discovered that the website www.pillsburychadbourne.com was registered on July 1 and updated again on Wednesday.

Pillsbury’s chair James Rishwain Jr. has engaged in talks with other firms six times in the past nine years, but none of the discussions have ever amounted to anything. Some of the firms include Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, ” href=”https://www.lawcrossing.com/lawfirmprofile/7bcxb51f1abo97d6814sb21e3cel74a280b7/Nixon-Peabody-LLP/” target=”_blank”>Nixon Peabody, Dickstein Shapiro, and Fulbright & Jaworski.

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Chadbourne has a powerful finance group, international insolvency practice, and is already in nine countries. Pillsbury has 18 offices throughout the U.S., China, London, Tokyo, and Abu Dhabi, making the merger a good fit for both firms to grow their international and national presence.

Chadbourne has been struggling in the last few years, even falling off the Am Law 100 rankings for the first time in 2013. They have been cutting a number of their staff and lawyers. They have also lost some of their international offices to larger firms. This merger is likely one both firms are hoping will help increase their international presence and expand their reach.