Addleshaw Goddard and Hunton & Williams in merger talks: UK firm's management to talk to partners
UK firm in talks to combine with US firm Hunton & Williams, with discussions going on for several months
May 24, 2016 at 08:04 AM
3 minute read
Addleshaw Goddard managing partner John Joyce is expected to talk to partners later today, as it emerges that the firm is in merger discussions with US player Hunton & Williams.
Legal Week understands that Joyce is set to speak to partners at around 6pm tonight, with the US talks on the agenda for discussion.
The call comes after Joyce is understood to have visited the US last week to speak to Hunton, alongside a delegation that included his executive team and Addleshaws' divisional managing partners.
Legal Week understands that the two firms have been in discussions for around nine months and, if successful, a merger between the pair would create a firm with combined revenue of around £554m and more than 1,300 lawyers.
In a statement, an Addleshaws' spokesperson said: "We've said before that we will never comment on speculation about mergers and that remains our position so we have nothing to say."
He added: "Increasing our scale and coverage is something we constantly consider."
The talks represent Addleshaws' second set of merger discussions in the past 12 months, after an unsuccessful round of talks with Scottish firm Maclay Murray & Spens was called off earlier this year.
Addleshaws posted revenue of £192.5m in 2014-15, which represented a 12% increase on its previous year's result. Its average profit per equity (PEP) partner climbed 25.3% to £491,000. In 2014-15 it had 609 lawyers and 173 partners, of which 96 were equity partners.
In contrast to Addleshaws' performance, Hunton posted one of the biggest revenue declines in Legal Week sister publication The American Lawyer's annual Am Law 100 rankings, with turnover dropping 7% to $528m (£361.6m) in 2015, making it the 62nd largest firm by revenue in. Its PEP stood at $950,000 (£650,039), down 5%.
The firm has 696 lawyers, with 167 equity partners.
Virginia-headquartered Hunton has six partners in its London office, led by data privacy partner Bridget Treacy.
The firm has 13 offices across the US, alongside international outposts in Brussels, Beijing, Tokyo and Bangkok.
Addleshaws has offices in London, Leeds and Manchester, as well as international offices in Dubai, Hong Kong, Oman, Qatar and Singapore. It has a presence in Tokyo through an alliance with a Japanese firm.
Addleshaws is currently consulting partners on potential changes to the firm's partnership deed, which will make it more difficult for partners to leave.
The deed change would restrict the number who could leave in one year to seven and introduce 'bad leavers' clauses, which would hit departing partners' equity.
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