Law firms Locke Lord LLP and Edwards Wildman Palmer LLP closed their merger over the weekend. The new firm, Locke Lord Edwards LLP, will feature 1,000 attorneys in 23 locations, according to an announcement on Monday from the two firms.
The firms' combined gross revenues total $675 million, based on the 2014 AmLaw 100 listings for both firms.
Edwards Wildman has a strong presence in New England public finance. It has served as bond counsel to the city of Boston and the commonwealth of Massachusetts, and represented Rhode Island in the Central Falls bankruptcy case. Locke Lord has roots in Texas.
Both partnerships approved the combination early December, two months after the firms signed a letter of intent.
Locke Lord partner Jerry Clements will be chairwoman of the merged firm, while Edwards Wildman managing partner Alan Levin will be a vice-chairman along with Locke Lord's Dan Schlessinger and Bill Swanstrom.
"We could not be more excited or ignited about our combination," said Clements.
According to the announcement, the merged firm provides stronger combined offices in the U.S. Midwest and Southeast, as well as Asia and London. In London, Edwards Wildman's already has integrated into the Locke Lord Bishopsgate offices.
Locke Lord Edwards will have about 150 lawyers in Boston, as well as offices in Hartford and Stamford, Conn.; Providence, R.I.; and Morristown, N.J. Also, the combined firm expects to expand "significantly" in Chicago, New York and Washington; increase its visibility in California with offices in Irvine, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Sacramento; and build out in the Southeast with in Atlanta, Miami and West Palm Beach, Fla.
The firm is combining its websites. Meanwhile, visitors to either website will be directed to
The new firm's executive committee, in addition to Clements, Levin, Schlessinger and Swanstrom, includes partners Nick DiGiovanni, Michael Gaertner, Jeffrey Hsi, Janis Loegering, Walter St. Onge, Graham Spitz, Heather Stone, David Taylor, George Ticknor, Jonathan Young and Tom Yoxall.
Locke Lord began in 1891 in Dallas, founded by former Valparaiso University mathematics professor Maurice Locke, and has operated under several names. Its 1999 merger of Locke Purnell Rain Harrell with Liddell Sapp Zivley Hill & LaBoon -- to form Locke Liddell & Sapp LLP - at the time was the largest law-firm merger in U.S. history. Following a nationwide trend of shorter names, Locke Lord Bissell & Liddell LLP changed to Locke Lord LLP in 2011.
Edwards Wildman was founded in 1880. It became Edwards Wildman Palmer through the 2011 combination of Edwards Angell Palmer & Dodge LLP and Wildman, Harrold, Allen & Dixon LLP.
