Womble Bond to Merge With Lewis Roca in Latest Big Law Combo (1)

Large law firms Womble Bond Dickinson and Lewis Roca have agreed to merge to form a single entity featuring 1,300 lawyers in the US and UK.

The merger is effective January 1, 2025, according to the firms. The combined firm, which totaled more than $742 million in gross revenue last year, will operate as Womble Bond Dickinson (US).

“Both of our firms recognize there’s a need to build scale, to have a deeper bench, in order to provide the type of legal services that our clients need, both in terms of skill set and also geographical reach,” Merrick Benn, Womble Bond’s chair and CEO-elect, said in an interview.

The new firm will operate under the leadership of Benn and Lewis Roca’s Kenneth Van Winkle, who will serve as vice chair. Van Winkle, a Phoenix real estate lawyer, will guide the firms’ integration following the merger.

Womble Bond formed in 2017 as the result of another merger: the combination of UK-based Bond Dickinson and US-founded Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice. The firm’s clients include Nissan and HSBC, as well as UK residential property companies Grainger and Bellway. It brought in nearly $571 million in gross revenue last year, landing among the 100 largest firms in the US, according to data compiled by The American Lawyer.

Lewis Roca is a west coast-focused firm that serves clients in Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, and New Mexico. The firm, whose clients have include Microsoft and Restoration Hardware, reported more than $171 million in gross revenue last year.

Some large firms have looked to merger talks to keep pace with rapid growth across the legal industry.

Philadelphia-founded Ballard Spahr and Seattle’s Lane Powell said Monday that they will combine, effective Jan. 1. Troutman Pepper, another Philadelphia firm, said last week it will officially merge with Texas-based Locke Lord in January.

Firms are feeling pressure to reach their clients in more places, according to Jordan Abshire, a North Carolina-based legal recruiter and the founder of Abshire Legal Search.

“Clients have been consolidating their outside counsel relationships largely in an effort to get volume discounts by giving more work to a smaller number of firms,” Abshire said.

Womble Bond and Lewis Roca came to the table with similar compensation and rate structures, said Van Winkle, which will ease the integration.

“If it wasn’t, that would have been a hurdle that would have been difficult to overcome, but it’s definitely a hand in glove situation when it comes to building the two partnerships,” he said.