Law firms Eversheds and Sutherland Asbill & Brennan will merge from February 1 2017.
The two law firms will be equal members of the new entity, Eversheds Sutherland, which was approved by more than 95 percent of partners on December 16.
It will be led by joint chief executives – Sutherland’s Mark Wasserman and Evershed’s Bryan Hughes – as part of a six-strong global management team, overseen by a board of 10 with equal representation from both firms. No significant structural changes are anticipated within either firm.
The two firms already have mutual clients; of the 58 Fortune 100 companies represented by Sutherland, 25 are also represented by Eversheds. Shared clients include Microsoft, Facebook and TE Connectivity.
Eversheds has been seeking a US tie-up for several years, holding merger talks with US firm Floney & Lardner in 2015. But the talks collapsed before they reached a partnership vote.
Sutherland had not been actively looking for a merger, but began to discuss the matter with its new partner at the start of the year, Wasserman said.
Eversheds Sutherland will have 2,300 lawyers across 61 offices in 29 countries.
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