PoGo says 'I Do'

Within the legal industry, it was no secret that Atlanta-based Powell Goldstein LLP, or PoGo as it's known, was seeking suitors.

Over the past decade, the firm, launched in 1909, has watched its revenue fall, its talent leave and its Atlanta rival, King & Spalding LLP, expand at a healthy clip.

"People did speculate [Powell] wouldn't survive," says a lawyer at another firm.

But now that speculation can rest. On Nov. 3, Bryan Cave LLP, a 945-lawyer firm based in St. Louis, announced it would merge with Powell, a 220-lawyer firm. "I think it was a marriage of necessity for one and of strategy for the other," the lawyer says.

The merged entity will operate under Bryan Cave LLP, while Powell Goldstein's Atlanta flagship will operate under Bryan Cave Powell Goldstein. It will have more than 1,200 lawyers in 25 offices globally, besting King & Spalding's 880-plus lawyers, including 125 lawyers in Washington.

Powell Goldstein "would have been fine continuing as we are, but we can be a lot stronger and a lot more competitive in combination with Bryan Cave," says Powell chairman James McAlpin Jr. The deal extends Powell's footprint to London, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Milan, Hamburg, Paris and Singapore, and to major markets like New York and California, which helps in cross-border work.

"The combination was very attractive to us. We have a very strong regional litigation practice, but they offered a very strong national litigation practice," McAlpin adds.

For Bryan Cave -- a Midwest firm with a global network -- Powell's Southeast and Texas strength sealed the deal. "It gives us a presence in the Southeast, an area where we haven't previously had a presence. It also gives us an entrée into Texas, where we've seen litigation needs from the clients," says Don Lents, chairman of Bryan Cave and a 34-year veteran of the firm.

The deal's genesis goes back to 2006, when Powell hired a consultant to examine its business. "We determined we needed to be deeper and stronger in our practice offerings and more geographically diverse," says McAlpin. "We tried to do that on our own and opened a Dallas and Charlotte office while looking for a merger partner." PoGo knew its dream partner would be a national firm with a global footprint and little or no presence in the South, he adds.

In the end, the deal enables Powell Goldstein to avert the fate of San Francisco's Thelen LLP and Heller Ehrman LLP, whose partnerships are dissolving.

"A merger like this is better than what Thelen and Heller is doing," says a New York lawyer at a big firm. "Neither of these firms is a big-ticket capital markets M&A firm, but I think there's a place in the legal world for regional or super-regional firms. If they can make it work, it will give them a pretty broad platform outside of New York. A lot of small and midmarket companies might find that attractive."