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Morgan Lewis, Bingham law-firm deal done

Morgan Lewis & Bockius L.L.P., the Center City-based law firm, announced Monday that it had finalized its acquisition of Bingham McCutchen of Boston, creating one of the world's largest firms and extending Morgan Lewis's dominance in the U.S. legal market.

Morgan Lewis & Bockius L.L.P., the Center City-based law firm, announced Monday that it had finalized its acquisition of Bingham McCutchen of Boston, creating one of the world's largest firms and extending Morgan Lewis's dominance in the U.S. legal market.

With the addition of 510 Bingham McCutchen lawyers, as well as about 250 additional staff, Morgan Lewis will have more lawyers in the United States than any other firm. Worldwide, the firm will rank among the top five, with just under 2,000 lawyers and revenue of about $2 billion a year.

The combined firm will be known as Morgan Lewis & Bockius. Bingham McCutchen, one of the grand legal brands of Boston, will cease to exist as a provider of legal services.

"Now we really have greater strength, a deeper bench," said Morgan Lewis chair, Jami Wintz McKeon. "We want to be the outside firm that you can turn to for all of the things that are important to corporate America. Having that added capacity will benefit our existing clients and that was one of the things that drove this."

Before the combination, Bingham McCutchen was itself a very large firm, with 1,100 lawyers at its zenith a few years ago. But it experienced a decline in revenue and some critical partner defections, which caused the firm to join force with Morgan Lewis. Industrywide, its lawyers are highly regarded. They are expected to add strength in telecommunications, structured transactions, securities enforcement, and other practice areas.

"In Morgan, we have found the perfect new home," said Steve Browne, managing partner of Bingham McCutchen. "We already serve many of the same clients, but we will now have the resources to serve them in new ways and new markets."

Under the transaction, the great majority of lawyers who remained at Bingham while the deal was being negotiated have joined Morgan, including 226 partners. Bingham had 310 partners at the time of the transaction, with some unable to make the jump because of client conflicts or pending retirements, or because their practices did not match well with Morgan's.

McKeon said there are aspects of the acquisition that need to be worked out. For example, the two firms have duplicate offices in a number of cities, including Boston, New York, and Washington, and sorting out how to merge those groups will take several months. Morgan also still is evaluating Bingham's back office operation in Kentucky to see what portions fit well with its existing back office staff in Philadelphia.

Morgan Lewis lawyers have generally had little to say about the financial details of the transaction, except to acknowledge that some Bingham McCutchen liabilities, such as office lease costs, would be picked up by Morgan Lewis. Bingham McCutchen partners, for their part, have committed to stay for a minimum period to provide assurances that there will be adequate revenues to cover the cost of the transition.