Early this year, Dentons shocked the legal world when the law firm announced in January that it would merge with China’s Dacheng Law Offices to create the world’s largest law firm, employing as many as 6,600 lawyers around the globe.
But before the deal has even been sealed, Dentons is announcing that it’s upping the ante: On Monday, it said that Dentons and Dacheng are considering an even larger combination that would add Gadens, an Australian law firm with more than 500 lawyers, and Rodyk & Davidson, a Singapore law firm with 200 lawyers.
If completed, the mega deal would bring the number of Dentons lawyers to 7,300 across 80 offices in the Asia Pacific and account for little more than $2 billion in revenue — a financial milestone that was only reached by five top U.S. law firms in 2014, according to The American Lawyer.
The other law firms in this group consist of a mix of global and elite law firms: Latham & Watkins, with 2,100 lawyers, led the pack by grossing $2.6 billion in 2014. Baker & McKenzie, with 4,245 lawyers, followed closely with $2.5 billion, while the others were DLA Piper, staffing 3,700 lawyers bringing in nearly $2.5 billion, Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom with 1,600 lawyers generating $2.3 billion and Kirkland & Ellis, which had $2.1 billion in revenue among 1,576 lawyers.
Dentons, in announcing its latest tie-ups, pointed to a number of developments that it said would lead to legal work in the regions it is expanding: the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a recently announced trade pact among a number of Pacific Rim countries, China’s 21st Century Maritime Silk Road infrastructure program, the efforts to form the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) by year’s end and the Latin American Pacific Alliance.
Gadens, based in Sidney, has offices in Singapore, Port Moresby, capital of Papua New Guinea, while Rodyk & Davidson has offices in Shanghai and Jakarta.
The firms’ lawyers are expected to vote on their respective mergers with Dentons in mid-November, while Dentons’ deal with Dacheng, which was announced in January, is slated to be finalized by the end of 2015, according to Elliott Portnoy, CEO of Dentons.
Joe Andrew, Chairman of Dentons, explained that with its merger strategy, Dentons aims to create a one-stop shop law firm where lawyers are specialists in different jurisdictions and practice areas.
“We think many law firms in the marketplace exhaggerate their level of expertise and experience — the client calls and the lawyer says, ‘Yes,” before the client finishes their sentence,” said Andrew. “They pull out a lawyer who has done that type of transaction or matter once or twice.”
But Andrew said that Dentons wants to have “true depth of experience,” — “Not expats who fly in, but people who are really from the place.”
The tentative deals come after Dentons earlier this year completed an acquisition of the Washington-based McKenna Long & Aldridge, launched a Silicon Valley tech R&D company and hired a number of prominent public policy advisers, including former DNC Chairman Howard Dean and House Speaker Newt Gingrich.
Although the recent growth establishes Dentons as a significant player in the global market for legal services, bringing everything together can be a difficult task, said Kristin Stark, a law firm consultant.
“Realizing the benefits of multiple global combinations particularly within a relatively short time frame, requires tremendous effort and extraordinary leadership,” said Stark. “This type of strategy is not for the faint of heart.”