Kirkpatrick & Lockhart Preston Gates Ellis (K&L Gates) and Charlotte-based practice Kennedy Covington Lobdell & Hickman announced last week (1 May) that they are in merger discussions.
If the talks are successful, the merger would be completed by 1 July, both firms said in a statement.
K&L Gates grew out of a January 2007 merger between Pittsburgh firm Kirkpatrick & Lockhart and Seattle rival Preston Gates & Ellis. In January, K&L Gates merged with Texan 175-lawyer firm Hughes & Luce.
The proposed merger with 175-lawyer Kennedy Covington, which has five offices in North and South Carolina, would create a 1,700-lawyer firm with 28 offices located in the US, Europe and Asia.
K&L Gates chairman Peter Kalis and Kennedy Covington managing partner Eugene Pridgen said in a joint statement: “Both K&L Gates and Kennedy Covington have strong orientations toward servicing clients from the financial services industry. Both feature strong practices that would service the extraordinary growth in the corporate and life science sectors.”
Kalis added: “Like Hughes & Luce, Kennedy Covington is a regional firm with a national reputation for doing matters of consequence for [its] clients.”
Asked about K&L Gates’ sustained merger push, Kalis said the firm’s strategy is to “identify strategically significant parts of the global economy” and align itself with premier regional firms. The two firms began merger talks in late 2007, Kalis confirmed.