Virginia Lawyers Weekly

McGuireWoods LLP will merge with a 36-lawyer firm based in London on May 1, a move that will more than double the firm’s foreign-based contingent of attorneys.

“This is a great day in the history of McGuireWoods,” firm chairman Richard Cullen said last week in announcing the merger with Grundberg Mocatta Rakison LLP.

“We have sought to expand our overseas reach with a London office for some time,” Cullen added. “We are very fortunate not only to gain as partners such a talented group of internationally respected attorneys, but also to join forces with a firm that shares our values.”

Richmond-based McGuireWoods has about 900 lawyers in 17 offices, but its only overseas outposts now are in Brussels, Belgium, and Almaty, Kazakhstan. According to its Web site, it has 16 attorneys in Brussels and 12 in Kazakhstan.

GMR has especially strong ties with Nordic countries, Russia and the countries of the former Soviet Union. Much of its practice involves cross-border mergers and acquisitions, tax planning, litigation and dispute resolution.

Anders Grundberg, senior partner and founder of GMR, said, “We already work with lawyers at [McGuireWoods] on a number of matters, and with its excellent reputation for corporate, banking, litigation and private client work, we feel that this is the ideal time to combine our talents, not only to capitalize on existing opportunities in London and internationally, but also to prepare the groundwork for when the financial markets return to strength.”

When the merger is complete, the GMR attorneys and other staff will practice under the McGuireWoods name.

Grundberg will be managing partner of the London office, and the firm will expand its board of partners to include Robert Rakison, another partner in the London firm.

Other partners will become part of the McGuireWoods committee structure, and GMR’s Walter White Jr. will head McGuireWoods’ emerging markets practice and maintain offices in London and Washington.

Former McGuireWoods managing partner William J. Strickland has been stationed in Brussels for about a year and a half and “one of the things he went over to do was to help us explore opportunities” for a London office, said Peter L. Covington, McGuireWoods vice chairman. Strickland will divide his time between London and Brussels.

Covington is based in Charlotte but will move to London to help manage the office but also to be involved the firm’s litigation practice there.

“Personally, it’s going to be a great opportunity for me,” he said.

McGuireWoods lawyers had worked with GMR attorneys before, but the interaction picked up within the last six to nine months as the possibility of a merger developed, Covington said.

More information about the two firms is available at www.mcguirewoods.com and www.gmrlaw.com.

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