Deadline day for Jones Day on Pennie & Edmonds offer

Jones Day will today discover how many partners will join its ranks from Pennie & Edmonds as the deadline for acceptances draws to a close.

Offers to move to Jones Day have been extended to the vast majority of Pennie fee-earners on the East Coast; the intellectual property specialist’s largest office is based in New York. The cut-off for acceptances is, according to a number of sources, today (5 December).

It is understood, however, that Jones Day chose not to invite the West Coast contingent to join the firm.

Between 23 and 28 lawyers, mainly from Pennie’s Palo Alto office have decided to opt for Morgan Lewis & Bockius, the West Coast firm which famously recruited over 150 lawyers from the now defunct Brobeck Phleger & Harrison.

It is also expected that Washington partner Victor Balancia, along with a number of associates, has also decided to move to Morgan Lewis. It is not yet clear where fee-earners from Pennie’s smallest office in San Diego relocate.

Lawyers at Pennie, which is engaged in its second round of merger talks with Jones Day after the original negotiations fizzled out last April, had been given a short deadline to accept or reject a move to the Cleveland firm.

Talks between the two firms resumed in mid-November and have been led by highly rated partner Brian Poissant and managing partner John Normile.

Jones Day and Pennie were unavailable for comment.