R. Cameron Garrison and Michael Sullivan Jr. (Left to right): R. Cameron Garrison and Michael Sullivan Jr.

Lathrop Gage and Gray Plant Mooty will combine next year to form Lathrop GPM, the firms announced Thursday, creating a new 400-lawyer firm and extending a streak of Midwest law firm mergers.

The deal, effective Jan. 1, 2020, will unite Kansas City, Missouri-based Lathrop Gage's 240 attorneys with Minneapolis-headquartered Gray Plant Mooty's 155 lawyers. With 14 offices—concentrated in the Midwest but including coastal outposts in Boston, Washington, D.C., and  Los Angeles—Lathrop GPM will have a deeper presence in the heartland as well as a broader national reach, the firms said.

The firms' combined revenue, which they estimated at about $208 million, would place Lathrop GPM at No. 140 on the 2019 Am Law 200 list—roughly even with similarly sized, Chicago-based Hinshaw & Culbertson.

Lathrop was No. 178 in the Am Law rankings this year, based on 2018 revenue of $124.3 million. Lathrop's revenue and head count have declined together for three years running, according to ALM data.

The merger comes two months after another union of firms centered in the lower and upper Midwest, including Minnesota. Taft Stettinius & Hollister, with its largest offices in Indianapolis and Cincinnati, and Minneapolis-based Briggs and Morgan announced at the end of August that they plan to merge their 600-plus attorneys to create a firm with combined revenue estimated above $350 million.

Earlier this month, global megafirm Dentons announced simultaneous combinations with Bingham Greenebaum Doll and Cohen & Grigsby, two Midwest regional players with 320 attorneys between them.

According to law firm consultancy Altman Weil, every U.S. merger announcement in 2019 that included an acquired firm with more than 100 lawyers has involved the Midwest.

In an interview, Lathrop Gage managing partner R. Cameron Garrison, who will lead Lathrop GPM, said the new combination was facilitated by Kristin Stark at Fairfax Associates and that the two firms started serious discussions in early June of this year.

"It was a thorough but relatively quick, process," Garrison said, adding that before the combination, the firms did not view themselves as market competitors.

Garrison will also chair Lathrop GPM's executive committee. Michael Sullivan Jr., Gray Plant Mooty's managing partner, will be partner-in-charge of the new firm's Minneapolis office and member of the executive committee. The additional 11 members of Lathrop GPM's executive committee will be made up of partners from both legacy firms.

Both firms have long histories in their home markets; Gray Plant Mooty, founded just one year after the end of the Civil War, calls itself the "oldest continuing law practice" in Minneapolis, while Lathrop, founded in 1873, claims to be the oldest continuously operating law firm west of the Mississippi River.

Garrison said that the combination will add depth to key practice areas: The corporate and employment labor practices will both double in size, and the litigation department will also grow. But he said the true value of the merger is how Lathrop's and Gray Plant Mooty's distinct practice areas will complement one another. Gray Plant Mooty brings particular strengths in franchise, health law, higher education, M&A and nonprofit practices, while Lathrop has notable life sciences, patent prosecution, insurance recovery, tax credits, environmental law, tort litigation and energy practices, according to the firms.

With an enhanced geographic and practice mix, Lathrop GPM will be able to provide broader and better service to clients than either firm on its own, Garrison said.

"This decision is really about our clients," he said. "We're a national firm with national talent. This combined firm will position us to better serve our clients and offer better depth and breadth in our practice area."

The merger will also give Lathrop access to the Minneapolis market, which has lately been drawing renewed attention from large, out-of-town firms hoping to add a presence there. One such firm, Saul Ewing Arnstein & Lehr, broke into the market earlier this year, hiring away eight Gray Plant Mooty partners to do so. Greenberg Traurig, Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith and Spencer Fane are among other 2019 arrivals to the city.

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