Mergers: Freehills and Herbert Smith Tie the Knot
The long awaited merger between Aussie firm Freehills and the UK’s Herbert Smith has just gone final and the official launch of the equity partnership is said to be early October. The new law firm will be jointly led by David Willis and Gavin Bell, according to the Wall Street Journal law blog:
“’We are excited about bringing together two pre-eminent law firms to create a new and distinctive global law firm. We share with Freehills a strong belief that over the next few years the market for premium legal services will become increasingly dominated by a small number of truly global firms. This merger will therefore put us in a strong position to provide clients with the single global offering they increasingly demand,’ Mr. Willis said in a statement
Mr. Bell echoed his future colleague. ‘The merger will give Herbert Smith Freehills the platform to become the leading global law firm across Asia Pacific, a region likely to see continued substantial growth and to become an increasingly important part of the global legal services market,’ he said.
Based on their size and Asia Pacific rankings, it will become Asia Pacific’s largest law firm by revenue and number of partners, and the world’s eight-largest firm by number of lawyers.”
We’ve seen the merger wave continue this year as firm’s seek to boost their Asian presence as well as make some cost savings, but things seem to be slowing down a bit, with a couple potential mergers being called off recently. Tips on whose next?
Check out the latest jobs at Aussie and UK firms at Law Alliance.
