Negotiations for the deal began in December after Dickstein Shapiro failed to close a prospective merger with Bryan Cove. The Washington DC-based practice haemorrhaged 42.8 per cent of its staff in the 14 month period to 8 February, to the roughly 100 lawyers that will now join Blank Rome. 

‘Not a merger’

Announcing the deal, Blank Rome chairman and managing partner Allan J. Hoffman emphasised that the arrangement between the two firms is 'not a merger', though an official title has not yet been attached to the deal. Under the arrangement, Philadelphia-founded AM 100 firm Blank Rome will take over Dickstein Shapiro's Washington DC lease and move its own Watergate offices to the former Dickstein Shapiro set-up in International Square. The addition of more than 90 DC-based and 13 New York-based Dickstein Shapiro attorneys will increase Blank Rome's headcount by 20 per cent to around 620 lawyers. The tie-up marks the largest transaction in Blank Rome's 70-year history and a major step in the firm's ongoing efforts to expand out of its Philadelphia base. It will also establish new government contracts and insurance-coverage practice groups for Blank Roman.

No longer practising

While the deal opens up doors for Blank Rome in Washington DC, its implications for Dickstein Shapiro are considerably more final: 'Dickstein Shapiro LLP is no longer engaged in the practice of law,' read a statement published by the firm on Thursday announcing the deal. Sources: Business Wire; National Law Journal; The American Lawyer; ABA Journal; Philly.com