New York has witnessed another dissolution with established general practice Townley & Updike announcing plans to close its doors at the end of the year. The 20-member partnership, due to vote on a draft plan for dissolution last week, had failed in its attempts to secure mergers with Coudert Brothers and Winthrop, Stimson, Putnam & Roberts. “Essentially the firm needed to grow substantially to meet the needs and demands of clients,” said former chair of the management committee James Swire. “We attempted to do that by merger, and this was unsuccessful.”