The VLW Blog

Eight lawyers from the labor and employment practice of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP, including a co-chair of the practice area, have joined Hunton & Williams LLP. Laura M. Franze, who practices from Dallas and Los Angeles, will co-chair Hunton’s labor and employment practice as well. Joining her are three other partners, one [...]

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Troutman Sanders LLP will merge with D.C.-based Ross, Dixon & Bell on Jan. 1 in a deal that will double the Atlanta-based firm’s Washington contingent and give it its first offices in the Midwest and on the West Coast. Robert W. Webb Jr., Troutman’s chairman, said the merger is “very important to our national footprint.” [...]

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McGuireWoods LLP will merge the Helms Mullis & Wicker PLLC, a Charlotte-based firm with 145 lawyers, on March 31. McGuireWoods Chairman Richard Cullen said the firms’ “complementary expertise in capital markets, business litigation and corporate law … is a natural fit that will benefit the clients of both firms.” Peter J. Covington, chairman and managing [...]

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LeClairRyan will absorb Wright, Robinson, Osthimer & Tatum at the end of next month. The merger of the two Richmond-based firms will give LeClairRyan a West Coast presence for the first time and increase the number of attorneys to more than 270. Wright Robinson has about 50 attorneys, with a quarter of them in Richmond. [...]

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Reed Smith LLP will establish a presence in China when it merges with a Hong Kong firm on Jan. 1. The partners of Richards Butler Hong Kong will become partners in Reed Smith, an international law firm originally founded in Pennsylvania. The firm has 77 lawyers in three Virginia offices, located in Falls Church, Richmond [...]

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Spilman, Thomas & Battle PLLC, a 102-lawyer firm based in Charleston, W. Va., has offices in Pennsylvania and North Carolina but not in Virginia. That will change July 1 when Spilman absorbs the seven-lawyer Roanoke firm of Melchionna, Day, Ammar & Black PC. The combined firms will take the Spilman name, and the four shareholders [...]

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