Am Law 100 firm Taft is set to combine with Denver-based regional player Sherman & Howard, marking the latest in a string of recent large US law firm mergers. 

The combined firm will have more than 1,000 lawyers and projected revenues of $810m when it goes live on 1 January 2025. The merger will see Taft expand into the Mountain West region, with all eight of Sherman & Howard’s offices to join Taft’s nine primary markets, increasing the number of states with Taft offices to 10, plus Washington DC.

The merger is the result of both firms looking to expand their services for clients, they said in a joint statement. Taft is by far the larger of the two, with more than 900 lawyers compared to Sherman & Howard’s roughly 125 and revenues of $598.0m in 2023, according to publicly available data tracked by Pirical. 

Taft, which is known for its work representing West Virginians in environmental litigation against DuPont, has a track record of combining with smaller firms in expansion markets. The firm has completed six mergers in the past 16 years, including with 120-lawyer Detroit firm Jaffe Raitt Heuer & Weiss in 2022 and 140-lawyer Minneapolis outfit Briggs and Morgan in 2020. 

That has contributed to significant growth, with Taft’s revenues increasing to more than 400% of what they were at the beginning of 2017, while its lawyer headcount has grown by 275% in that time. The Cincinnati-founded firm said it had been looking to expand beyond the Midwest for several years, beginning with its expansion to Washington DC in 2021.

“We welcome the talented group of attorneys and staff from Sherman & Howard to our team,” said Taft chairman and managing partner, Robert Hicks. “They have an outstanding reputation and client base, and we are looking forward to the opportunities this merger brings our respective clients and firms.”

Taft is currently ranked number 83 on the Am Law 100 and said it expected its ranking would move up “substantially” following the merger with Sherman & Howard. The combined firm’s projected 2024 revenues are $810m, growing to $875m for 2025.   

Sherman & Howard CEO, Stefan Stein, said the firm had been drawn to “the success [Taft] has achieved by merging with firms that have a strong, local presence like we do”.

He added: “While working with the same attorneys and staff with whom they have long-standing relationships, our clients can now leverage a deeper bench and expanded service offerings both regionally and nationally.”

Sherman & Howard is itself no stranger to mergers, having completed four between 2007 and 2009. The firm, which was founded in 1892 and is the oldest in Denver, has eight offices across Colorado, Arizona, Nevada and New Mexico. It has strengths in areas including corporate/M&A, construction, labour and employment, litigation and real estate. 

The tie-up continues a wave of large US law firm mergers – defined by both having at least 100 lawyers – as firms look to greater scale to outpace rivals and shore up profits.

Earlier this month Womble Bond Dickinson and Lewis Roca announced they would merge to create a 1,300-lawyer firm with revenues of more than $740m, just days after Troutman Pepper and Locke Lord said they would combine, forming a 1,600-lawyer firm with revenue in the region of $1.6bn. Both tie-ups will go live at the start of 2025. 

The number of completed mergers also increased in the first half of the year according to Fairfax Associates – to 29, up from 28 in H1 2023 and 25 in each of the previous two years.  

Activity was focused on small and midsize firms, though there was the large merger between Shearman & Sterling and UK firm Allen & Overy, which created a 3,500-lawyer behemoth when it went live at the start of May.  

Last year the number of large mergers grew to five from just two the year before. The largest was Miami-based Holland & Knight’s (1,400 lawyers) tie-up with Nashville-based Waller Lansden Dortch & Davis (257).