Californian-based Cooley has been preparing to open its first office in the UK and has been in discussions with some Edwards Wildman partners in London over the last few months. Sources of The Lawyer have suggested that Nick Bolter was replaced as head of the London office by a predecessor, Walter Reed, because of ‘concerns about Bolter’s ambitions to join Cooley with a team of partners’. 

Hot and cold

But Cooley had been said to want to open up in London in October. But a source close to the firm said: ‘Cooley has been blowing hot and cold.’ It could be that it is waiting to see if Edward Wildman and Locke Lord Edwards go ahead with the merger plans that their senior managers have backed. Votes are expected among partners on both sides before Christmas. Source: The Lawyer