Magic Circle and US firms announced plans to combine on Sunday
Allen & Overy and Shearman & Sterling have unveiled a combined logo as part of yesterday’s news they are set to merge to create a global mega firm.
Magic Circle firm A&O teamed up with US firm Shearman & Sterling, it was confirmed on Sunday, to create the third largest integrated law firm in the world. The new firm will be known as Allen Overy Shearman Sterling, or A&O Shearman.
Now it has revealed its new logo (below), which retains elements from both their old ones, namely A&O’s font and Shearman’s dark palette, though it’s green (not black) in colour.
It’ll be known as A&O Shearman for short, yesterday’s joint press release confirmed, but that didn’t stop speculation among our readers, with ‘ASS-O’ among one of the memorable suggestions.
A look at the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) database shows a website has been set-up for ‘aoshearman.com’ as of yesterday.
The firm said the merger, which is subject to customary closing conditions including a partner vote, was “driven by clients’ needs for a seamless global offering of the highest quality”. It will bring together 3,900 lawyers across 49 offices and approximately £2.7 billion in combined revenues.
Here’s how the firms compare in terms of pay and other metrics, according to our Firms Most List:
| Category | Allen & Overy | Shearman & Sterling |
| Training contracts | 90 | 15 |
| Trainee pay (Year 1) | £50,000 | £55,000 |
| Trainee pay (Year 2) | £55,000 | £60,000 |
| NQ pay | £125,000 | £145,000 |
| PEP | £1,950,000 | £2,530,000 |
| Offices | 43 | 25 |
| Countries | 29 | 16 |
It is unclear at this stage what A&O Shearman’s trainee and newly qualified (NQ) rates will be.