Merger goes live
The tie-up between Hogan Lovells and Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft officially went live today, creating a new billion-dollar BigLaw giant.
News of the potential deal first broke late last year, with partners at both firms giving it the thumbs up in April.
The new outfit, Hogan Lovells Cadwalader, has combined revenues in excess of $3.6 billion (£2.7 billion) and more than 3,000 lawyers across the globe, making it the fifth largest legal player by revenue.
Pre-merger, Hogan Lovells was the bigger firm by some distance, with 35 offices and an annual London trainee intake of around 50. Cadwalader, by comparison, has just five offices and recruits only a handful of rookies each year.
The deal goes live just a week after Legal Cheek reported that Hogan Lovells had raised newly qualified (NQ) solicitor salaries from £140,000 to £145,000.
That news came amid reports that associates who joined the new firm from Cadwalader’s London office had been told they would remain on their old pay scales — which were higher than those at Hogan Lovells. Cadwalader’s pay bands followed the so-called “Cravath Scale,” the structure used by elite New York firms, under which first-year associate pay equated to roughly £170,000 — some £25,000 more than NQs at Hogan Lovells.
This isn’t the only mega-merger to go live this week. Ashurst has also combined with US outfit Perkins Coie to create Ashurst Perkins Coie, a new firm with more than 3,000 lawyers and revenues of around £2 billion.