Official go-live date remains unknown
A merger between global giant Norton Rose Fulbright and Australian outfit Henry Davis York has been given the green light.
In a joint statement released today, the duo revealed that partners on both sides of the equator had voted “overwhelming” in favour of the combination. The new outfit — which will become the second largest global law firm in Australia by partner headcount (160) — will be known as *drum roll* Norton Rose Fulbright. An official tie-up date remains unknown but is likely to be sometime later this year.
Today’s announcement marks Norton Rose Fulbright’s third merger deal in under a year. Rapidly expanding its global footprint, the firm swallowed up Canadian outfit Bull Housser back in September. Several months later and it agreed to merge with US law firm Chadbourne & Parke. Legal Cheek understand this is due to go live in the coming months.
Commenting on its latest tie-up, Norton Rose Fulbright’s global chief executive, Peter Martyr, said:
The addition of Henry Davis York will give us the critical mass we need in Australia to take full advantage of the steps already underway, at a global level, to modernise our business through the implementation of our 2020 business transformation strategy. This combination will allow us to bring the benefits of this transformation to more clients.
Norton Rose Fulbright is the larger of the two outfits by quite some margin. Legal Cheek’s Most List shows that the firm — which offers around 50 London training contracts annually — has over 3,500 lawyers and support staff across 54 offices in 29 different countries, including four in Australia. It scored well in our Trainee and Junior Lawyer Survey, bagging A*s for office environment and international secondment opportunities. Its full scorecard can be viewed here.
Down under, Henry Davis York — which has just 45 partners, 71 senior associates and 63 lawyers — is considered a full service law firm with offices in Canberra, Brisbane and Sydney. The firm’s managing partner, Michael Greene, commented:
The partners and I have been considering for some time how we could take a proud and respected Australian law firm and re-engineer it for the future. After consulting with our clients, we felt the time was right to look to join forces with an elite global law firm to continue to provide them with an even greater level of service and industry expertise.
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