Legal Business

Post-merger fallout: Squire Patton Boggs loses 23-strong team in the Middle East

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The legacy Squire Sanders practice in the Middle East, a team of 23 lawyers that included five partners, has exited Squire Patton Boggs following the firm’s merger, leaving it with Patton Boggs’ legacy affiliate The Khalid Al-Thebity Law Firm.

The legacy Middle East practice of Squire Sanders, which includes offices in Saudi Arabia, Lebanon and Kuwait, will undertake a demerger just two years after El-Khoury & Partners, run by corporate partner Ziad El-Khoury, joined the firm after an affiliation that began in 2006. 

The team are believed to generate revenue of around $4m and were recently enlisted by Kuwait to administer 13 privatization projects, from schools to waste management and postal services.    

Squire Sanders and Patton Boggs both went into the merger with an affiliation in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, but tensions soon arose when the firm attempted to merge the operations and appointed Khalid Al-Thebity, the founder of the Patton Boggs affiliate and longtime lawyer to the Saudi Arabian government, as managing partner in Riyadh.

Patton Boggs established an affiliation with the firm, which has offices in Riyadh, Abu Dhabi, Doha and Dubai, in 2012. Al-Thebity’s practice focuses on the energy, construction and real estate industries.  

Hadi Melki and El Khoury, who co-founded El-Khoury & Partners, depart Squire Patton Boggs alongside fellow partners Khulaif Al-Enezee, Wissam Hachem and Beirut-based Elie Abouzeidan.

Melki and Hachem were fully integrated within the Squire Sanders partnership under its UK LLP, while El Khoury came under the US LLP. Al Enezee and Abouzeidan were joined through association offices as foreign law firms are unable to practice in Lebanon and Saudi Arabia without a local affiliation.

The Saudi Arabian office, Al Enezee Legal, was the largest of the legacy firm’s offices in the Middle East with around 20 staff, including a support team, and their exit cuts the number of Squire Patton Boggs lawyers in the Middle East down to 25. ‘Patton Boggs people needed to do more to make us feel welcome rather than a power play,’ said one lawyer.  

Squire Patton Boggs’ European and Middle East managing partner, Peter Crossley, commented: ‘Khalid and his team are highly regarded, with a depth of experience and capability within sectors of strategic importance for our global firm. With a well-established Riyadh office we will be able to unlock opportunities in Saudi Arabia and throughout the region.’

Al-Thebity said: ‘We are very pleased to be affiliated with Squire Patton Boggs. The firm’s global network and its strength in key hubs across the Gulf means that we are very well-positioned to provide services to clients doing business or investing in the Middle East.’

Tom.moore@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Squire Patton Boggs bolsters Asia presence with Tokyo merger

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Newly-merged transatlantic firm Squire Patton Boggs has bolstered its presence in Tokyo by tying up with Japan-headquartered corporate boutique Mamiya Law Offices (MLO).

MLO, a five-lawyer corporate and transactional practice founded in 2008 by M&A lawyer Jun Mamiya, has become a part of Squire just a month after the merger of Squire Sanders and Washington DC lobbyist firm Patton Boggs created a 1,500 lawyer firm across 44 offices in 21 countries.

Mamiya launched the firm after spells as a partner at Hashidate Law Offices, which formed an alliance with Addleshaw Goddard last year, and Atsumi & Partners. The Japanese firm’s practices include domestic and international transactions, corporate governance, corporate restructuring private equity, securities and disputes. The addition of this five-lawyer team to Squire’s existing office brings the number of Tokyo-based lawyers up to 40.

While Squire has lost a number of lawyers following the merger, including London shipping partner Linos Choo who opted to rejoin DLA Piper in June, the firm has secured several hires in Asia.

Corporate partners Kenji Funahashi from Jones Day and Hiroki Suyama from Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pitman joined its Los Angeles office in June, while competition lawyer Li Hua also recently joined the firm’s Beijing office from French firm Gide Loyrette Nouel.

Ken Kurosu, Squire’s Tokyo office managing partner, said: ‘We have developed a strong relationship with Mamiya-sensei, having first worked together almost 20 years ago. Not only do we share a number of major public institutional clients, but there are synergies with our financial services and intellectual property practices in Tokyo, which will lead to new and exciting opportunities in Japan as well as elsewhere around the world.’

Tom.moore@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Squire Patton Boggs brings in former Dundas partner to head UK real estate litigation team

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Squire Patton Boggs has made its first UK partner hire since the May announcement that Squire Sanders would unite with Patton Boggs, recruiting former Dundas & Wilson partner Andrew Walker to head its burgeoning UK real estate litigation team.

Walker left Dundas in January, just a year after joining, ahead of the leading Scottish firm’s merger with Walker’s former firm CMS Cameron McKenna, where he launched the real estate disputes team in 1993. He will now head up a growing UK real estate litigation team at Squire Patton Boggs, which was bolstered by the arrival of Alison Hardy from Wragge & Co in January.

Walker is the latest partner hired into Squire’s City real estate practice group so far in 2014, with Gary Paddison and Rachel Orton, who spent six months at the London Development Agency in the run up to the 2012 Olympics, having joined as partners from DLA Piper in February.

Walker will be based in Birmingham, where the firm recently advised on the £450m redevelopment of Paradise Circus, a flagship site within Birmingham city centre’s enterprise zone. The firm promoted Birmingham-based real estate lawyer Neil Taylor to partner earlier this, taking the number of real estate partners in the firm’s Birmingham office to five.

Nick Green, managing partner of Squire Patton Boggs in Birmingham, said: ‘Andrew is an experienced, well connected real estate litigator who will expand the capabilities of our litigation and real estate practices in Birmingham and across the UK.’

Simon Miller, Squire Patton Boggs’ UK head of litigation, added: ‘With Andrew at the helm, supported by senior real estate barrister, Patrick Walker, Alison Hardy and Helen Hoath, we will have a team with unrivalled experience in providing client- focused solutions in this important practice area.’

tom.moore@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Squire Patton Boggs – what does the merger mean for lawyers in London and Europe?

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Effective on 1 June, the merger between 39-office firm Squire Sanders and 330-lawyer Washington outfit Patton Boggs will bring together the larger firm’s global platform with Patton Boggs’ white collar expertise in the US, but what will it mean for lawyers in London and Europe?

With over 1,500 lawyers spanning 44 offices in 21 countries, the combined firm is expected to be placed in the top 25 firms globally by lawyer headcount and eighth by number of countries occupied, based on figures from the American Lawyer.

According to Peter Crossley, who will continue as European managing partner at the combined firm, the merger is ‘universal good news for any partner in Europe’, where Patton Boggs has no offices but has long sent instructions, particularly in funds work, from its offices in the Middle East, namely Abu Dhabi; Doha; Dubai and Riyadh.

In contrast, Squire Sanders – one of the few US firms with regional offices, stemming from the 2010 transatlantic merger of the UK’s Hammonds with then Squire Sanders & Dempsey – has 71 partners in the regions alone, spread across Birmingham, Leeds and Manchester. Including London, it has four UK offices and a total of 18 across Europe.

With the addition of Patton Boggs, Crossley says the firm is now well-positioned to launch a fund formation group in London, with plans already in place to relocate a Patton Boggs partner from Washington DC or New York to oversee growth of this group in the City. Crossley says the move ‘is a direct result of the merger’ and will be fed by Patton Boggs’ clients in the Middle East, where the firm has two private investment funds partners and three associates.

Crossley explains: ‘The opportunities within the Middle East are such that we’ll be expanding into new areas of expertise. We don’t have too much in the way of funds formation expertise at the moment and that’s the area we’ll be investing in moving forward. We have some resource but it’s not significant enough with the type of work we will have coming down the track, principally emanating from clients in the Middle East.’

Squire Sanders’ own Middle East practice is expected to benefit and, at the time of the merger announcement on 27 May, Crossley said in a statement: ‘This combination is great news for our European and Middle East presence by adding greater heft in the US market, which is most capable of generating work internationally.’ The only jurisdictional overlap with Patton Boggs is in Riyadh, where both firms have an alliance, although here it is Squire Sanders’ presence that is the largest, with four dedicated fee-earners and a further seven that split their time between Riyadh and Beirut.

Another practice area expected to benefit from the combination in London is arbitration, where George von Mehren, who continues as head of international arbitration at the combined firm.

‘In my group I would expect 50% growth in London within a year and a half at a minimum, in terms of revenue and number of partners. There is the Patton Boggs synergy and the synergies in the law firm that we can take advantage of,’ he says. The firm currently has five London-based partners that handle arbitration, with a further partner hire expected imminently.

Patton Boggs’ arbitration expertise largely resides within insurance and reinsurance, reducing the risk of conflicts between the combined practice group’s clients. Von Mehren says existing plans to expand the group in Asia will now ‘move quicker and more efficiently’ than before the merger.

Overlap and conflicts are minimal, Crossley stresses, although chairman-elect Jim Maiwurm said on a conference call when the merger was first announced, that ‘a few people will be affected by conflicts and will not be able to join the combined firm’.

These are likely to fall in the US, where both firms are headquartered, with disputes – where Patton Boggs’ co-chair of commercial litigation and antitrust Benjamin Chew exited ahead of the merger – likely to be most affected. For London and Europe, so far, there seems to be little in the way of downside.

tom.moore@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Approved – Squire Sanders and Patton Boggs confirm merger

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Despite reports in the US legal press that the merger between Squire Sanders and Washington-headquartered lobbying firm Patton Boggs may have hit the buffers at the 11th hour, the firms today (27 May) announced that the merger has been voted through.

The combined firm, Squire Patton Boggs, will comprise approximately 1,600 lawyers – of which 1,223 are legacy Squires Sanders and 334 from Patton Boggs – across 45 offices. The new firm will come into effect on June 1 2014, after both partnerships voted in favour of the merger last week.

The combination will utilise Squire Sanders’ global platform and Patton Boggs’ public policy and white collar expertise in matters where law, government and business intersect.

The combined firm will advise in sectors including banking and financial services, energy, utilities, insurance, life sciences, healthcare, transportation, technology and telecommunications.

The merger goes ahead after top 50 Global 100 firm Dentons approached Patton Boggs with an offer to combine last month. And, follows the collapse of merger talks between Texas-based Locke Lord and Patton Boggs late last year.

It follows reports from the US legal and national press that a vote on the merger had been halted after a court filing in relation to a new suit brought against Patton Boggs by Chevron Corp, which it was feared would interfere with a $15m settlement paid by Patton Boggs to exit that litigation.

Jim Maiwurm, Squire Sanders’ chair and global chief executive until the end of the year said: ‘Patton Boggs is the premier public policy firm in the world, and this combination establishes us as the ‘go-to’ firm for public policy work. We also gain a leading position in the Middle East and several new locations in the United States, while deepening our bench in a number of important practices areas, all of which strengthen our service platform.’

Patton Boggs managing partner Ed Newberry added: ‘The platform and collective expertise created through this combination provide considerable opportunities to access new markets, engage clients in new ways and attract and retain top talent. I couldn’t be more excited for the future of our firm.’

Jaishree.kalia@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Squire Sanders’ merger talks partner Patton Boggs approached by Dentons

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Squire Sanders‘ merger talks partner Patton Boggs has been approached with an offer to combine from top 50 Global 100 firm Dentons.

A Dentons spokesperson said this morning (2 April): ‘We can confirm that Dentons has made a serious overture to Patton Boggs leadership about a combination to form a new firm together. We hold Patton Boggs and its lawyers and professionals in high regard, and our interest in conversations between our firms and partners remains high.’

Washington-based Patton Boggs and top 40 Global 100 firm Squire Sanders confirmed they were in preliminary merger talks in late February, with a view to creating a 1,700-lawyer firm with 45 offices across 22 countries.

Both stressed at the time that discussions were in ‘very early stages’ and there was ‘no assurance’ that a combination would be completed.

However at the end of March the US legal press and Wall Street Journal reported that the talks were edging closer.

Meanwhile, Dentons’ previous attempts to bulk up its US presence includes failed merger discussions with McKenna Long & Aldridge late last year. Both firms confirmed the talks in late September, while a later partner vote scheduled in November voted against the union. If it had gone through it would have created a firm with around 3,100 lawyers globally.

Patton Boggs is a leading public policy and lobbying firm with nine offices and a tie-up with the Washington firm would give either Squire Sanders or Dentons strong positions across Dallas, Denver and Anchorage, as well as a network of offices in the Middle East.

The talks come months after the collapse of merger talks between Texas-based Locke Lord and Patton Boggs, which last year reported a 12% decline in revenue alongside an exodus of partners and the closure of its Newark office.

Squire Sanders did not respond to requests for comment at the time of writing.

Sarah.downey@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Revolving Doors: Brodies hires Transocean former GC as Squire Sanders and Bird & Bird make key hires

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The past week was one for lateral hires outside the City, as Brodies boosted its oil and gas practice with the hire of former Transocean general counsel for Africa and the Mediterranean, Tom Hickey; Squire Sanders beefed up its construction team in Manchester with former head of construction and engineering and corporate services at Pannone, Sean McCay; and Bird & Bird bolstered its Brussels base with the second competition partner exit from Ashurst’s Brussels office in two months.

Dual-qualified in England and Wales and the State of California, upstream oil and gas expert Hickey is to join Brodies’ Aberdeen-led oil & gas team on 6 April but will continue to operate from Paris, where he has been based for the last 15 months while with Transocean.

While at Transocean Hickey negotiated drilling contracts and supported the firm’s operations, compliance and tax teams as mobile rigs were moved between jurisdictions along the north, west and east African coasts, prior to which he held the position of assistant GC at explorative energy company Hess Corporation between 2000 and 2012.

During that time, Hickey worked out of Hess’ London, Houston, Kuala Lumpur and New York offices, advising on a wide variety of upstream and corporate projects in Europe, West Africa, the Americas, Australia and Asia.

Bill Drummond, managing partner of Brodies, said: ‘Tom has an impressive track record working with cross-functional teams on the successful delivery of complex and challenging projects across the globe.

‘In addition to his proven ability to carry out proactive risk analysis, develop local contractual arrangements and offer innovative solutions to manage risk, his in-house experience has given him a deep understanding of the issues that matter most to corporate clients, whether political, commercial or cultural.’

Also joining the Brodies team, this time in Glasgow, is dual-qualified renewables lawyer Donna Kelly-Gilmour, who came across earlier this month as partner from Glasgow-based boutique Wright, Johnston & Mackenzie.

Meanwhile, below the border, former head of Pannone’s construction and engineering group and corporate services division McCay, returns to Squire Sanders as partner in its construction division in Manchester, where he trained and spent 16 years at the firm until 2006, serving as a partner for seven years.

With more than 20 years’ contentious construction and engineering experience, McCay advises private and public sector clients in the energy, utilities, waste management and engineering industries, with particular expertise in advising on nuclear decommissioning and large infrastructure projects and regeneration schemes.

Also joining Squire Sanders’ 21-lawyer construction team from Pannone is contentious construction associate Jody Kite.

This comes just a few months after Australian firm Slater & Gordon announced the acquisition of the consumer services and personal injury (PI) business of Pannone in November in a deal worth £33m.

Meanwhile, across the channel, Bird & Bird has appointed competition and EU partner Efthymios Bourtzalas from Ashurst’s Brussels outpost, where he has been a partner since 2007, having spent three years as a case handler in the European Commission’s directorate general for competition.

Greek-qualified Bourtzalas has been involved in several high-profile and complex competition law matters at an EU and national level, including in particular several phase I and phase II merger and State aid cases. His practice includes merger control, restrictive agreements, cartels and abuse of dominance cases, state aid, public procurement, external trade, internal market, EU regulatory and institutional matters, and litigation on competition and EU matters before the EU and national courts.

His exit comes just weeks after high-profile competition partner Julian Ellison left Ashurst’s Brussels office in February to join Mayer Brown’s Brussels base in February.

Co-head of Bird & Bird in Belgium, Anne Federle, said: ‘We are very excited to welcome Efthymios to our team. His extensive experience, in particular in the energy and communications sectors, makes him a great fit and his track record of working with clients in South Eastern Europe will support the development of our firm’s activities in this region.’

francesca.fanshawe@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Squire Sanders reveals almost flat US turnover and profits as Patton Boggs talks ongoing

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Squire Sanders has unveiled largely flat 2013 results in the US, with revenue at the top 15 LB100 firm, which is still in merger talks with Washington’s Patton Boggs, nudging up just 0.1% to $775m.

Total lawyer headcount dropped by 2.4% to 1227 lawyers, with revenue per lawyer up 2.4% to a three-year high of $630,000, while net income rose slightly by 0.9% to $106.5m after suffering a 20% drop at the end of 2012.

Average profits per equity partner rose slightly too, increasing 1.3% to a six-year high of $810,000. Having fallen four percentage points in 2012, Squire Sanders’ profit margin remained at 14%, the lowest it’s been since 1985 when it stood at 43%, according to American Lawyer, which started tracking the firm the same year.

Squire Sanders chair and global CEO Jim Maiwurm said in a statement: ‘On a whole we feel positively about our performance in 2013—a year when the legal industry faced some headwinds. The slowly recovering global economic climate and constantly evolving legal industry have caused the legal market to contract in size and in absolute net revenue. Despite these challenges, [our] revenue grew slightly … [and] the firm was able to improve its revenue per lawyer.’

The financials come just a couple of months after the firm, which was formed from the 2011 transatlantic merger between US firm Squire Sanders & Dempsey and the UK’s Hammonds, confirmed widespread reports of preliminary merger talks with Washington-based Patton Boggs in February, with a statement that stressed: ‘Discussions are in very early stages, and there is no assurance that a combination will be completed.’ The past day has seen the American press including the Wall Street Journal report that the talks are edging closer, after both firms signed a letter of intent to merge.

Patton Boggs is a leading public policy and lobbying firm with nine offices, while Squire Sanders is by far the larger of the pair. For Squire Sanders, Patton Boggs would bring a powerful Washington presence and strong positions in Dallas, Denver, and Anchorage, as well as a network of offices in the Middle East. Squire Sanders, meanwhile, brings a more complete US presence, as well as strong European and Asia-Pacific positions and a highly ranked Latin American practice.

The merger talks follow a year of global expansion for Squire Sanders, which formed an association with 32-lawyer Salkom in Ukraine, which went live in October, while the firm finalised a similar arrangement with 33-lawyer Melli Darsa & Co in Indonesia in November.

francesca.fanshawe@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Revolving Doors: Lateral hires for Squire Sanders, Olswang, Irwin Mitchell, DAC Beachcroft and Osborne Clarke

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In the latest series of lateral appointments across the UK’s leading firms, Squire Sanders has hired former Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP) director of China business as a partner in its global corporate practice, as Olswang welcomes former Gateley contentious insolvency partner Louise Bell, Irwin Mitchell hires restructuring and insolvency specialist Edward Judge, and DAC Beachcroft brings in Eversheds’ former head of procurement in Newcastle, Ruth Connorton.

Meanwhile in Italy, Osborne Clarke has hired former R&P Legal antitrust partner, Enrico Fabrizi.

A dual-qualified lawyer in England and Wales and the People’s Republic of China (PRC) with more than two decades’ experience advising both international and Chinese clients on cross-border corporate, commercial and M&A transactions, Michelle Chen is one of the latest to depart BLP as she joins Squire Sanders’ City practice.

After qualifying among the first PRC lawyers in 1990, Chen worked for 10 years as an international law advisor to the State Council of the PRC and has an in-depth understanding of the Chinese government.

She has been closely involved in several high profile projects, including the formal transfer of sovereignty over Hong Kong from the United Kingdom to China and the establishment of the Hong Kong legal system.

Chen also served as group legal counsel at Hong Kong-based investment holding company Hutchinson Whampoa, responsible for the group’s China-related matters.

Jane Haxby, partner and EMEA chair of Squire Sanders’ global corporate practice, said: ‘We welcome Michelle to the firm and to the London office, where she is the fifth partner to join us since January. Michelle is highly regarded by her peers, many of whom include in-house counsel at some of China’s largest businesses.

‘She joins us at an important time, as our China outbound and inbound work continues to develop. Chinese outbound M&A, in particular, is growing globally with the UK, Western Europe, Germany especially, and North America being key regional focuses for Chinese investors. Following our recent appointment of China outbound specialist Dr. Benjamin Kroymann in Shanghai, Michelle’s experience will further strengthen our capabilities for clients both in China and internationally.’

Also in London, former Gateley insolvency litigator Louise Bell joins Olswang’s commercial litigation, insolvency and civil fraud team where she brings her focus on substantial claims brought by insolvency practitioners, often working on fraud and complex recovery options.

Bell’s clients include KPMG, Grant Thornton, BDO, FRP Advisory, Moore Stephens and Griffins, and she has worked for banks including Lloyds Banking Group, Clydesdale Bank and National Australia Bank in pursuing recovery options outside of a formal insolvency.

In a clear statement of intent to continue to instructing Bell, head of Grant Thornton’s contentious insolvency team, Kevin Hellard said: ‘Olswang has significantly strengthened their offering in this growing market with the addition of Louise Bell to their team. Louise is an accomplished litigator and increasingly a leading player in the contentious insolvency market. We look forward to continuing to work with Louise and the wider Olswang team in the future.’

Meanwhile, Judge marks Irwin Mitchell’s 21st hire into its commercial practice since the start of 2012, as he joins the top 25 firm’s London office from SGH Martineau, where he specialised in both contentious and non-contentious corporate restructuring and recovery.

In the North, DAC Beachcroft takes on Eversheds’ former head of procurement law, Connorton, who specialises in non-contentious procurement matters advising clients in both the private and public sectors, including the NHS, and who brings with her three colleagues from Eversheds in Newcastle upon Tyne.

With 20 years’ experience in the sector, five of which were spent in-house at Yorkshire Water, Connorton’s recent experience includes the de-commissioning contracts at Sellafield, Olympic Legacy procurement and Network Rail franchising.

Martin Cannon, head of the commercial team at DAC Beachcroft, said: ‘Ruth is a national figure in procurement law with No. 1 rankings in Chambers and Legal 500. The work she does will complement and enhance our existing services in real estate, regulatory and public law, local government and health and take us into a whole new space in terms of our national procurement offering.’

Across to the Continent, meanwhile, Fabrizi joins Osborne Clarke from local firm R&P Legal to head its Italian antitrust practice and oversee the firm’s expansion in Rome, bringing with him a team of three lawyers.

Fabrizi advises on Italian and international competition law, state incentives and unfair business practices, as well as on regulatory issues, particularly in the digital business and energy sectors.

Riccardo Roversi, managing partner of Osborne Clarke Italy – which was formed through its merger with SLA Studio Legale Associato in 2012 – commented: ‘Enrico’s arrival enriches our pan-European competition practice, which is led by Thomas Funke. His experience, combined with the growing Brussels office means OC has a deeper bench of talent available to its clients who need national and EU advice.’

francesca.fanshawe@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

US merger talks: Patton Boggs and Squire Sanders confirm ‘early’ discussions

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Washington-based Patton Boggs and transatlantic top 40 Global 100 firm Squire Sanders are in preliminary merger talks, the firms confirmed to Legal Business today (27 February), with a view to creating a 1,700-lawyer firm with 45 offices across 22 countries.

The confirmation, which comes after widespread reports of the talks across the US legal and financial media yesterday (26 February), stressed that ‘discussions are in very early stages, and there is no assurance that a combination will be completed.’

Patton Boggs is a leading public policy and lobbying firm with nine offices, while Squire Sanders is by far the larger of the pair, with 39 offices across 19 countries, 1,257 lawyers and a 2013 revenue of $774m.

For Squire Sanders, Patton Boggs would bring a powerful Washington presence and strong positions in Dallas, Denver, and Anchorage, as well as a network of offices in the Middle East. Squire Sanders, meanwhile, brings a more complete US presence, as well as strong European and Asia-Pacific positions and a highly ranked Latin American practice.

The talks come a few months after the collapse of merger talks between Texas-based Locke Lord and Patton Boggs, which in 2013 reported a 12% drop in revenue to $278m, and has seen a flight of partners and the upcoming closure of its Newark office.

Squire Sanders, which was formed from the 2011 merger between Squire Sanders & Dempsey and Hammonds, disclosed flat 2013 profits of $803,000.

The statement from the firm added: ‘The firms will not make further statements until it has been determined whether to proceed.’

david.stevenson@legalease.co.uk