What are your thoughts on the Troutman Pepper and Locke Lord merger discussions? Forum

[Anonymous User]

https://www.law.com/americanlawyer/2024 ... -law-firm/

[The Lsat Airbender]

Don't really think about either of these firms ngl

[Anonymous User]

Fair enough

[Anonymous User]

Two minnows do not make a whale.

[bajablast]

Two minnows do not make a whale.

The PEP for both of these firms is over $1 million. A merger between the two would generate revenue of over $1.6 billion, putting it in the top 30 of firms. Sure this isn’t a merger between Cravath and Kirkland, but it’s these kind of soft preening schoolboy comments that make people roll their eyes at TLS.

[Anonymous User]

I’m OP. I wanted to say this, but didn’t want to start a fight. Thank you

[Moneytrees]

Two minnows do not make a whale.

The PEP for both of these firms is over $1 million. A merger between the two would generate revenue of over $1.6 billion, putting it in the top 30 of firms. Sure this isn’t a merger between Cravath and Kirkland, but it’s these kind of soft preening schoolboy comments that make people roll their eyes at TLS.

PEP for each firm barely cracks the top 100 which is probably why no one really cares.

[Anonymous User]

Two minnows do not make a whale.

The PEP for both of these firms is over $1 million. A merger between the two would generate revenue of over $1.6 billion, putting it in the top 30 of firms. Sure this isn’t a merger between Cravath and Kirkland, but it’s these kind of soft preening schoolboy comments that make people roll their eyes at TLS.

PEP for each firm barely cracks the top 100 which is probably why no one really cares.

They also aren't topically relevant - like at all - i can't think of any interesting case or business deal in the last 20 years where either one of these firms was involved.

[The Lsat Airbender]

I’m OP. I wanted to say this, but didn’t want to start a fight. Thank you

why don't you kick the discussion off then to supplement your drive-by OP consisting entirely of a hyperlink and a nonspecific question

[Anonymous User]

I'll bite. In my practice area in a non-NY/DC but major market, I used to think of Pepper Hamilton and Locke Lord in the same vein. Both do high volume commoditized work with a relatively good reputation for budget minded clients. Nothing notable, but not cut rate/bad, either.

Despite their lack of headline-making matters, I do find this merger talk interesting. Historically, small/medium firms were happy to do this sort of low value commoditized work with much lower profits than their larger biglaw brethren. But I think there's a shift to try to (1) increase leverage and (2) take advantage of economies of scale to close the gap (at least somewhat). This would be the second major merger in a few years for Troutman Pepper (remember, it used to be Troutman Sanders and Pepper Hamilton), but it's not clear to me the last one worked out great (their revenue/headcount has been relatively stagnant). Regardless, I would certainly be concerned if I were a partner at either with a smaller book of business.

[nealric]

I'll bite. In my practice area in a non-NY/DC but major market, I used to think of Pepper Hamilton and Locke Lord in the same vein. Both do high volume commoditized work with a relatively good reputation for budget minded clients. Nothing notable, but not cut rate/bad, either.

Despite their lack of headline-making matters, I do find this merger talk interesting. Historically, small/medium firms were happy to do this sort of low value commoditized work with much lower profits than their larger biglaw brethren. But I think there's a shift to try to (1) increase leverage and (2) take advantage of economies of scale to close the gap (at least somewhat). This would be the second major merger in a few years for Troutman Pepper (remember, it used to be Troutman Sanders and Pepper Hamilton), but it's not clear to me the last one worked out great (their revenue/headcount has been relatively stagnant). Regardless, I would certainly be concerned if I were a partner at either with a smaller book of business.

It does seem like there is less and less room for the mid-size regional firm like Locke Lord out there. They all seem to be either merging with larger firms or going under (see Stroock). I think most institutional clients have much more of a national mindset these days and even if clients don't actually need national-level service, having a larger firm may be important for branding purposes. These mid-size firms have to have all of the institutional apparatus as the mega firms, but benefit less from the economies of scale. They can't run as lean as boutiques can.

A secondary issue is that a merger like this is a good way for the larger firm to enter a new market. It's very difficult to create a new regional presence from scratch (see the recent failed attempt by Paul Weiss to enter the Houston market). But a reasonably successful regional firm acquisition can be a turn-key presence in a market.

[alawyer2018]

If I recall, Troutman does not have any offices in Texas, so I think you're on to something, nealric.

As an aside, I'm surprised by the reaction of some posters that this merger is not meaningful. I can't tell whether they're just trolling, but if they aren't, it's hard to believe they actually work in big law and would have this reaction.