It's Official: Locke Lord, Edwards Wildman Combination Launched; Locke Lord Edwards Expands Global Reach, Enhances Client Services

January 12, 2015 ­– Locke Lord LLP and Edwards Wildman Palmer LLP have officially merged, creating Locke Lord LLP, a firm with more than 1,000 lawyers in 23 cities around the world as well as a combined history of more than 125 years. With joined revenues, it will be among American Lawyer’s Top 50 U.S. law firms.

The two firms first announced they had signed a Letter of Intent in September, and in early December announced that the Partners of each predecessor firm approved the merger. The legacy firms each have experience with mergers and will use their successes to propel the combined Firm forward.

“We could not be more excited or ignited about our combination,” said Jerry Clements, Chair of the merged Firm. “We have two firms where the people genuinely like each other, have already formed teams with strong camaraderie, and who share a strong commitment to their clients and in helping their clients succeed.

“With this new Firm, we have an expanded global platform and can better serve our clients, who also have business across the world.”

In addition to a greatly enhanced domestic and global footprint, Locke Lord now has a stronger team of lawyers who have been working together over the past few months making sure they offer even broader representation of private equity and venture capital clients across a spectrum of industries including energy, telecommunications, technology, real estate, health care and life sciences. The combined Firm also now has much deeper strength in insurance, reinsurance, intellectual property, financial institutions and fund formation teams.

The merged Firm has an extremely well-recognized Texas and Northeast presence – two critical U.S. markets – and provides stronger combined offices in the Midwest, Southeast, Asia and London. In London, Edwards Wildman’s strong trademark team already has integrated into the Locke Lord Bishopsgate offices.

The Firm is in the process of combining its websites. In the interim, visitors to either website will be directed to a landing page explaining the firms have combined and the site is under construction, and then can quickly go to one of the legacy sites.

In addition to Clements, Locke Lord’s Executive Committee includes Firm Vice Chairs Alan Levin and Bill Swanstrom and Partners Nick DiGiovanni, Michael Gaertner, Janis Loegering, Walter St. Onge, Heather Stone, David Taylor, George Ticknor, Jonathan Young and Tom Yoxall.

Locke Lord LLP is one of American Lawyer’s top 50 U.S. law firms. The Firm provides national and international clients service across a full range of practices and industries from offices in  Atlanta, Austin, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Hartford, Hong Kong, Houston, Istanbul, London, Los Angeles, Miami, Morristown, New Orleans, New York, Orange County, Providence, Stamford, Sacramento, San Francisco, Tokyo, Washington D.C. and West Palm Beach. It is a global leader in the middle market sector with its 1,000-plus lawyers building collaborative relationships and crafting creative solutions for clients across a broad spectrum of industries including energy, insurance and reinsurance, telecommunications, technology, real estate, financial services and health care and life sciences, while providing a wealth of experience through its complex litigation, regulatory, intellectual property and fund formation teams.