The merger of Chicago-headquartered McDermott Will & Emery and New York outfit Schulte Roth & Zabel has gone live, in a tie-up that has created a firm with $3bn in revenue.
The tie-up, which completed 1 August, puts the combined firm just behind the top 10 US firms by revenue. Known as McDermott Will & Schulte, the new firm has around 1,750 lawyers across more than 20 offices and will become the ninth-largest law firm in New York by headcount.
The merged firm will be led by chairman Ira Coleman, who held the same role at legacy McDermott. Coleman hailed the tie-up as “setting a new standard for excellence” in the legal profession.
“From serving as indispensable partners to our clients to fostering a people-first culture and driving innovation, we’re challenging conventional models and building a firm for the future,” he added.
McDermott Will & Schulte did not specify who will hold other senior roles but said leadership from both legacy firms will shape the future of the combined organisation. Schulte partners will assume key roles across the management, executive and compensation committees and will serve as co-leads for the firm’s New York and London offices, the firm said in a statement.
The merger saw McDermott, which has particular strength in healthcare, tax and mid-market M&A, gain Schulte’s top-tier funds, financial services regulation and mid-market private equity buyouts practices.
Legacy McDermott was by far the larger of the two firms – its 1,350 lawyers brought in revenue of just over $2.2bn in 2024 according to data published by the American Lawyer, with profit per equity partner (PEP) of $4.6m. Schulte had revenue of $618m last year and PEP of $4.1m.
Marc Elovitz and David Efron, legacy Schulte co-managing partners, said the merger “empowers us to broaden our impact, deliver unmatched value, and redefine what clients can expect from their legal partners”.
Almost all of legacy Schulte’s 360 lawyers are based in New York, although the firm also had a small office in Washington DC and a roughly 25-lawyer base in London focused on private funds work.
Coleman told Bloomberg Law the combined firm’s London office, which boasts more than 100 lawyers and, alongside its funds offering has particular strengths in tax and private equity, is expected to bring in around $120m in revenue this year.
The firm is set to relocate the office from the City to Mayfair in 2028, in a move that will give it significantly more space and put it at the heart of London’s private capital district.
The merger continues a trend of tie-ups in the legal industry as firms seek scale to boost profitability and build their footprint in desirable markets.
“This is part of a pattern of accelerating consolidation among law firms,” Kent Zimmermann, a principal at law firm consultancy Zeughauser Group told GLP when news of the firms’ talks first broke in May.
“Larger and more profitable firms often have a talent advantage because they tend to have more flexibility on compensation, more money to invest to advantage the firm broadly, have a higher profile and are often seen as a safer choice among talent and clients for the most sophisticated work that commands high rates.
“Most firms find there are limits to how big and profitable they can get on their own, so they increasingly put M&A on the table. What’s changing is that these trends are now impacting more profitable firms. There will be more transactions for all of these reasons.”
Law firm merger activity has ramped up this year, with 35 mergers completed in H1 2025 according to Fairfax Associates, a 21% increase over the same period in 2024. Five of those were between firms that each had more than 100 lawyers, with the largest being the tie-up at the start of June between Herbert Smith Freehills (2,331 lawyers) and New York’s Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel (330) to create HSF Kramer.
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