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Simmons and Mayer Brown merger talks: round two

I’m always amused reading the comments about UK-US mergers. It was the same with Lovells and Denton WS. There is always a retreat into parochialism from the UK end. It’s as if UK lawyers and the UK legal commentariat are unaware of the US market, and seem to be judging these US merger partners soley on the basis of their small London offices – which admittedly are often a bit rag-tag, but hardly reflect the size and power of these firms in the United States. Do any of these people read the US legal press, do they do business in the U.S, do they work with U.S law firms? I suspect not. Or do they get all their news from the union jack-waving UK legal weeklies? Do they believe that London firms are indeed the best in the world? What is interesting is that in all these three mergers, a stronger US firm with a better brand and financials (Hogan, Sonnenschein, Mayer) has merged with a weaker UK counterpart, yet all the comments seem aghast that the British would contemplate such a tie-up. The U.S is still by far the world’s largest economy, it’s legal market is over 50% of the global market, and there are many firms in the AmLaw 100 who are larger and better than all but the best MC firms, yet, because they are based in Atlanta or Miami or Philadelphia or Cleveland, they will barley be known to most myopic City partners – who have only heard of a handful of Wall St names. That doesn’t mean they’re not good firms. Mayer a good example. Sure, they have had problems in London but they are a powerhouse in the U.S, and increasingly in Asia. For the record, I’m British and not tied to any of these firms, but the jingoism from those that think the world ends at London Bridge is laughable. I’m amazed that more half-arsed UK firms aren’t on the phone to the States.

21-Jun-2010

3:40 pm