Hogan Lovells and Shearman Sterling have announced there will be no merging

And it’s so wrong as, according to the journalists of American Lawyer, these two galleys could theoretically create a galley that would quickly get into the top 3 companies in terms of turnover. The turnover of Hogan Lovells last year was $2.6 billion, and Shearman Sterling’s was $1 billion, so that’s it. But no, both companies, for some reason, deny that they want to merge.

“We are a top firm, yeah? All top firms, and we too, as we are a top firm, are looking around for new top opportunities, yeah? Accordingly, from time to time, but not this time, we communicate with other top firms about what damn top firms we are (high five, bro) and what other top opportunities our top firms could create,” — Hogan Lovells wrote in their press release (the retelling is not literal).

Shearman Sterling wrote in a press release (also not verbatim): “We never comment on rumors and speculations. Our partners do sometimes go out for business lunches. Some of them read “Never eat alone”, so we have to cooperate with partners of other firms. But, of course, they cannot eat in silence. That’s why they gossip about something there, who knows them about what; they are the partners.”

American Lawyer journalists do not calm down and say, “our partners told us that you were discussing a merger. Some other partners also said that the two firms have been discussing certain issues for some time; you should agree it cannot be ruled out that they are discussing the takeover because it is not shameful for them to discuss Dentons’ position on Russia, right? There were also partners who were hearing about it for the first time, but they were not saying something, so we count their position as “confirmed”.

We also decided not to interview partners of Ukrainian law firms about whether they feel that something powerful is coming; maybe Hogan Lovells and Shearman Sterling are merging. The partners of the Ukrainian firms have predictably not responded to us by the time of this publication, which is quite alarming.

✍️ Dima Gadomsky