Dentons Sign Photo: Diego M. Radzinschi/ALM

Dentons on Monday announced it had officially combined with Indianapolis-based Bingham Greenebaum Doll and Pittsburgh-based Cohen & Grigsby, taking its first steps to become what it calls the first truly national U.S. firm.

The combinations, first announced in October as a part of Dentons' new "Golden Spike" strategy, add at least 315 lawyers in 10 U.S. cities—including Cincinnati, Louisville, and Harrisburg, Pennsylvania—to the sprawling Dentons network, which has more than 10,000 lawyers in 74 countries.

Named for the gold railroad spike that was used to mark the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad in 1869, Dentons' strategy is focused on filling what it sees as a gap in the U.S. legal industry: None of the country's 10 largest law firms are in all 20 of its largest markets, and many of those markets are virtually ignored by the largest firms.

By combining with Bingham and Cohen, Dentons is now in 14 of the largest U.S. markets and in 33 states overall.

These numbers are small compared to the number of offices other professional services have in the U.S. As part of its Golden Spike pitch, Dentons noted that PwC has offices in 79 U.S. cities, even though it has the smallest U.S. footprint of the Big Four accounting firms.

Dentons U.S. CEO Mike McNamara said in an interview prior to Monday's announcement that interest in the new strategy has exceeded the firm's expectations, both from "top-of-the-market" firms and others as well.

"We have very active conversations underway with talented and interesting firms, interesting lawyers," McNamara said. "I very much believe we will have, in 2020 and 2021, additional firms that come together with us, that help us advance the model as we are growing the new national partnership in the U.S."

Dentons global chairman Joe Andrew said in November that Florida was a top priority for the firm's expansion plans. At the time, Dentons had exchanged confidential financial data with "a number" of firms whose leadership have signed nondisclosure agreements. Dentons already has offices in Miami and Naples.

As part of the combinations, McNamara and the leaders of Dentons Bingham Greenebaum and Dentons Cohen & Grigsby will lead a management committee that governs the firm's U.S. region.

The Dentons combinations won't be the only law firm merger news the industry sees this week. On Saturday, the merger between Faegre Baker Daniels in Minneapolis and Philadelphia's Drinker Biddle & Reath will take effect, creating Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath, an Am Law 50 firm with more than 1,300 lawyers and consultants with 22 offices in the U.S. and abroad.

Apart from the Dentons combinations and Faegre Drinker merger, nine other law firm mergers are scheduled to close in the first quarter of 2020, according to consultancy Fairfax Associates. This included the unions that created Taft—the result of Cincinnati-based Taft Stettinius & Hollister merging with Minneapolis-based Briggs & Morgan—and Lathrop GPM, the result of Kansas City, Missouri-based Lathrop Gage and Minneapolis-based Gray Plant Mooty.

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