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Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Ind. Law - More on: Sommer Barnard may merge with Cincinnati firm
Updating this ILB entry from yesterday, Alexander Coolidge of the Cincinnati Enquirer reports today:
In its largest acquisition ever, downtown Cincinnati law firm Taft Stettinius & Hollister will acquire Indianapolis-based law firm Sommer Barnard.The deal will add more than 100 attorneys to Taft's roster for a total of about 320 in nine offices across Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana as well as in China as of next month.
Financial terms were not disclosed. The merger will vault the regional practice to the nation's 125th-largest firm, up from 200th. The deal is expected to be final today.
"Greater scale enables us to do greater things," said Thomas Terp, Taft's managing partner. "This deal provides our clients a bigger and better toolkit."
Terp noted that both firms have strong corporate practices, but added that Sommer will provide Taft with attorneys specializing in insurance regulation, white-collar criminal defense and internal investigations.
He said Taft will provide Sommer clients with deeper labor law, tax, municipal finance and intellectual property expertise. No jobs will be eliminated, both sides said.
Though neither firm publishes a list of regular clients, the acquisition adds medical device giant Cook Group of Bloomington, Ind.; broadcaster Emmis Communications, and private-equity firm Hammond Kennedy Whitney & Co. to Taft's other high-profile client list that includes U.S. Bank, AK Steel, Children's Hospital and the Bengals.
Sommer's managing partner, Roberts Hicks, said law firms are under pressure to bulk up as corporate clients go multinational and their legal needs become more complex. * * *
Hicks will become partner-in-charge of Taft's Indianapolis office, which will become Taft's second-largest with 105 attorneys, compared with the Cincinnati office that has almost 130.
The new deal, which was negotiated over two years, easily dwarfs past Taft acquisitions.
Posted by Marcia Oddi on April 30, 2008 08:23 AM
Posted to Indiana Law