The legal press headlines yesterday morning threw me for a loop: Williams & Connolly was thinking about merging with Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan? Say what?

In some ways, it would have been a rational union, bringing together some of the best litigators on the planet.

I can picture the press release, crowing about global platforms and critical strengths and economies of scale. Marketing jargon aside, the combined firm would have been a slightly terrifying, 1,000-litigator juggernaut.