Cooley Godward has announced it is to merge with New York litigation boutique Kronish Lieb Weiner & Hellman, securing the Californian tech leader's long-awaited Manhattan launch.

The tie-up, which goes live on 1 October under the banner Cooley Godward Kronish, will create a 550-lawyer national practice and comes after several years in which Cooley had sized up mergers with a handful of very different legal firms.

The 110-lawyer Kronish has a strong focus on the lucrative area of securities litigation, having acted for clients including Goldman Sachs, Travelers Indemnity Company and Sumitomo.

The firm also handles disputes work in tax and property as well as contentious insolvency work, having advised Enron's employees in the oil giant's highly-complex Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

The addition of the New York firm gives Cooley its second base on the East Coast. It already has a small Washington DC branch as well as offices in Palo Alto, San Diego, San Francisco, Colorado and Virginia.

The tie-up will be viewed as highly significant for the US legal market. Cooley was once hailed as one of the iconic band of Silicon Valley practices at the forefront of California's explosive venture capital technology boom.

However, the firm began attempting to broaden its practice after the crash in its core market in 2001 resulted in a slump in profits and saw the firm axe more than 100 lawyers over two years.

Previous merger attempts, including a highly ambitious proposed union with San Francisco giant Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe, which broke down in 2003, have focused on hedging the firm's practice both beyond the technology sector and to build a national US practice.

Other firms seriously linked to Cooley include New York's Proskauer Rose, IP specialist Pennie & Edmonds and private equity boutique O'Sullivan, which merged with Los Angeles giant O'Melveny & Myers in 2003.

Meanwhile, the loss of independence for Kronish comes amid the continuing pressure on the boutiques that have until recently been strong players in practice areas like IP and securities litigation, with many respected firms being absorbed by larger, corporate-driven firms.

The tie-up was brokered by Cooley's chairman and chief executive Stephen Neal, one of California's most high-profile litigators.
Cooley will be now hoping to bring together Kronish's respected practices together with its own sizeable contentious team, with the combined firm boasting a 250-lawyer "coast to coast" litigation practice.

Significantly, Kronish's highly-regarded managing partner, Alan Levine, will become a member of Cooley's newly-created executive committee and continue to head the New York office.

Neal commented: "This merger immediately establishes a formidable presence in New York with a partner that is perfect for us. Kronish has successfully competed with New York's largest and best firms for 50 years. We plan to grow aggressively."