For the moment at least, mergers appear to have gone out of fashion in the UK. But across the Atlantic they are being agreed with the minimum of fuss.

Recently, Florida-based Holland & Knight completed its sixth acquisition in a year to break into the top five US firms by size. Washington DC's Swidler & Berlin has merged with New York capital markets specialist Shereff Friedman Hoffman & Goodman, and European 58-partner practice Salans Hertzfeld & Heilbronn snapped up New York's Christy & Viener.

The latest deal is currently being hammered out between international giant White & Case and capital markets firm Brown & Wood. If all goes to plan, the merged firm will be the fourth largest in the US, with more than 1,200 lawyers.

Differences of opinion about the future name of the firm aside – White, Brown & Wood, or simply Beige have been suggested – the merger negotiations are moving smoothly towards a late-February partnership vote.

And unlike their UK counterparts at Richards Butler and Theodore Goddard, Jim Hurlock, chairman of the management committee of White & Case, and Tom Smith, managing partner of Brown & Wood, have the power to push the merger through.
Both are extremely well respected within their respective firms. And both have at least the tacit support of their partners in their search for merger partners.

Brown & Wood is said by market insiders to have been looking to merge with a suitable US partner for some time.

Its practice is focused on capital markets and it has a market leading securities team, but it has struggled to expand the breadth of its practice into other areas of law.

A merger with a general practice firm is seen as the best way to resolve this problem. Among the firms it has held serious talks with recently is West Coast-based Paul Hastings Janofsky & Walker. The negotiations are thought to have foundered over irreconcilable differences between the two firms' New York offices.

While Brown & Wood was looking for a domestic partner, White & Case's merger ambitions were focused in the UK. Hurlock admitted to conducting preliminary discussions with "one or two City firms" – which are understood by Legal Week to be Norton Rose and Allen & Overy.

For the time being, though, he has turned his attention to the US, and particularly to his firm's need to strengthen its US-based capital markets practice.

"For 25 years White & Case has had a goal of developing into a true global law provider," Hurlock said. "[The firm] historically is an issuers firm and does not have a relationship with primary investment banking houses."

Hurlock was attracted to Brown & Wood's strong relationship with lead US underwriters, including Merrill Lynch, with whom the firm is particularly close.

Hurlock is celebrating his 40th year at the firm and has been chairman of the management committee for 18 years.

He is due to step down in March, 2000 – aged 67 – only because the firm's partnership agreement forbids another term.

The market talk is that Hurlock is set on going out in a blaze of glory. So, if the Brown & Wood merger goes as planned, he could well cast his gaze back to the UK.
More than half of the respondents to The Legal Week/Axxia Business Confidence Survey (see pages 10 and 11) believe a major US-UK law firm merger will take place in the next 12 months. If they are right, the chances are 'White Brown & Wood' may well be involved.

Hurlock admits that "the choices are numerous". Apart from Norton Rose and Allen & Overy, other firms such as Wilde Sapte, Theodore Goddard and Simmons & Simmons are unlikely to shun the possibility of a global tie-up (see above).
In the meantime, Hurlock says that the firm is looking to expand its London-based English law capability in general corporate, capital markets, mergers and acquisitions, intellectual property and litigation.

For UK firms with an eye on their future, the White & Case/ Brown & Wood merger is definitely one to watch.