Hogan Lovells and Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft have agreed to merge in a deal they are dubbing the “largest law firm combination in history”.
The deal, which is expected to go to a partners’ vote in the spring, will create the world’s fifth largest law firm by revenue with combined turnover of more than $3.6bn, based on their 2024 performance, and 3,100 lawyers. The combined firm will be known as Hogan Lovells Cadwalader.
It ends months of speculation about the future direction of New York-based Cadwalader, much the smaller of the two parties, following a string of high-profile departures in 2025 and reports in early November it was in merger talks with Alston & Bird.
The deal is the latest of a string of large law firm mergers with a strong focus on transatlantic capabilities since UK Magic Circle firm Allen & Overy and New York’s Shearman & Sterling announced their $3.5bn tie-up in May 2023.
That deal went live in May 2024; HSF Kramer followed suit in June of this year, while in recent weeks UK-based Ashurst has agreed to merge with Perkins Coie, and Winston & Strawn has struck a deal with Taylor Wessing’s UK practice.
For Hogan Lovells – the product of a merger in 2010 between Washington DC-based Hogan & Hartson and London-based Lovells – the deal holds the promise of significant additional strength in New York where ‘out of town’ firms have always struggled to build capacity, and Cadwalader enjoys the status of being Wall Street’s oldest law firm.
It also hands it extra capacity in the hot private capital sector – given Cadwalader’s historic focus on fund finance and related products, including securitisation and derivatives, and its significant presence in Charlotte, the second-largest US banking hub after New York.
Hogan Lovells’ chief executive, Miguel Zaldivar, who is set to retain his role at the head of Hogan Lovells Cadwalader, said: “Cadwalader, a premier Wall Street institution, brings top of the market finance capabilities, which combined with Hogan Lovells’ powerful global platform, expands our abilities to comprehensively advise clients at a time when cross-border investment is increasingly driving growth in key sectors – including finance, energy, technology, life sciences and others.”
Cadwalader’s status as the junior partner in the deal is reflected in the roles envisaged for its co-managing partners, Pat Quinn and Wes Misson, who will sit on the firm’s international management committee: Quinn as global managing partner for clients and practice integration, and Misson as global managing partner of its finance practice.
While Cadwalader’s 2024 turnover of $638m was dwarfed by Hogan Lovells’ fee income of $2.97bn, Cadwalader’s profit per equity partner (PEP) of $3.7m was higher than Hogan Lovells’ figure of $3.07m.
This reflects the fact that Hogan Lovells has a far larger network outside the US, the most lucrative market in the world, although it moved to raise its profitability at the end of 2024 by closing its offices in Johannesburg, Sydney and Warsaw.
Its experience bedding down the transatlantic merger that created it, meanwhile, holds out the promise that it is equipped to deal with the challenge of integrating its new Wall Street partner.
Filippo Falchi, managing director in the partner practice group at Major Lindsey & Africa, commented: “The fact that one party to this deal has already been through a similar merger before... bodes well for its outcome. From a talent standpoint, blending two different firm cultures can be somewhat of a challenge, particularly when a firm has a very distinct ethos. Having an established track record of successfully merging US and UK firms is a positive sign in that regard.”
Quinn commented: “Throughout our discussions, it has been clear that we are driven by the same core values – excellence, ambition, collaboration and an unwavering commitment to our clients, people and society. This alignment gives us confidence that our cultures will complement one another and help us thrive.”
Both parties will nevertheless be hoping that the deal with stabilise Cadwalader, which has experienced a string of senior departures in 2025.
They include the defection to Orrick in October of a 37-lawyer CLO and asset-backed lending team, including 10 partners from across its London, Charlotte, Washington DC and New York offices.
Last month, Cadwalader put a brave face on the losses, telling Bloomberg Law that it had added more than 75 lawyers in 2025 and that in the first three quarters of 2025 it had added 13% more new client relationships and opened 20% more new matters compared with the same time in 2024.
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