Gardere Wynne Sewell and Foley & Lardner have agreed to merge, effective April 1, creating a firm of approximately 1,100 lawyers in 24 offices in the United States, Mexico, Asia and Europe. The combined firm will be known as Foley Gardere in Austin, Dallas, Denver and Houston, and Foley Gardere Arena in Mexico City. All other offices will operate as Foley & Lardner. The joint firm's revenue will total $830 million, placing it among the Am Law 50, the firm said. Gardere, based in Dallas, and Foley, founded in Milwaukee, have been talking for two years, and the merger is one of three involving large Texas firms this year. Houston-based Andrews Kurth Kenyon is merging on April 2 with Virginia firm Hunton & Williams, and Strasburger & Price, also based in Dallas, is in talks with Detroit firm Clark Hill. With the April 1 merger, Foley secures a presence in the booming Texas market through Gardere's offices in Dallas, Houston, and Austin, as well as offices in Denver and Mexico City, which is a gateway to Latin America. Gardere benefits from Foley's offices in the Midwest, the East and West coasts and Florida, as well as its offices in Belgium and Tokyo. [caption id="attachment_6422" align="alignleft" width="115"]
Jay O. Rothman[/caption] "In short, Foley and Gardere are better together," Jay Rothman, Foley's chairman and chief executive officer, said in a statement. Holland O'Neill, chair of Gardere who will be a Foley Gardere partner and member of the combined firm's management committee, said the synergies between the firms are clear. Gardere will gain access to Foley's experience in the automotive, life sciences, sports and technology sectors and access to a large government affairs practice in Washington, D.C., the firms said. And it will give Foley geographic expansion in such practice areas as corporate, litigation, intellectual property, energy, government solutions and financial restructuring and reorganization. [caption id="attachment_6423" align="alignleft" width="115"]
Holland N. O'Neil[/caption] In particular, the merger will give Foley's energy practice enhanced capability in oil and gas, renewables, infrastructure and project finance. And Foley said it will also deepen its private equity, venture capital, and IP practices to better service its clients in Texas. This is not the first time Foley & Lardner has sought out a merger partner. In 2015, it considered a potential combination with the British firm Eversheds but broke off those discussions later that year. (Eversheds subsequently found a merger partner in Sutherland Asbill & Brennan.) And last year, Foley & Lardner and New York’s Friedman Kaplan Seiler & Adelman talked about a potential tie-up. For Gardere, the merger brings to an end the firm's 109-year reign as one of Texas’ oldest standalone regional law firms.