Seyfarth Shaw LLP, a leading national full-service law firm, and D’Ancona & Pflaum LLC, a 100-year-old Chicago law firm, today announced the merger of the two firms effective October 1, 2003. As one of the largest mergers of two Chicago-based law firms in recent years, the addition of D’Ancona’s 60 attorneys to Seyfarth Shaw creates a Chicago office with 270 attorneys, and increases the firm’s size nationally to approximately 600 attorneys.
The merger was announced jointly by J. Stephen Poor, Managing Partner of Seyfarth Shaw, and Joel D. Rubin, Chairman of D’Ancona & Pflaum. The combined firm will operate under the Seyfarth Shaw name, and the D’Ancona attorneys will relocate from 111 E. Wacker Drive to Seyfarth Shaw’s offices at 55 E. Monroe.
The addition of the D’Ancona attorneys greatly enhances Seyfarth Shaw’s local and national strength in a range of practice areas, including corporate, securities, mutual funds, pension fund investments, venture capital, litigation, real estate and estate planning. D’Ancona’s national and international client base will benefit from access to the collective expertise and geographic presence of Seyfarth Shaw’s national platform.
“We are extremely pleased to welcome these highly skilled attorneys, who not only add considerable depth to our Chicago office but also expand our national capabilities in several key practice areas,” Poor said. “Given the fact that these attorneys had the option to join other national law firms, we feel fortunate that they viewed our firm as providing the best opportunity for continued growth.”
“The fact that our attorneys enthusiastically elected to join Seyfarth Shaw speaks volumes about the strength of both firms and the tremendous synergy that is created by joining forces,” Rubin said. “We are excited to bring an expanded menu of legal capabilities to Seyfarth Shaw’s Chicago and national operations.”
For Seyfarth Shaw, the merger with D’Ancona is the largest of several significant growth moves in the past few years. Mergers and additions of practice groups and individual laterals from local and regional firms have helped Seyfarth dramatically increase its presence and capability in cities such as Atlanta, Boston, Los Angeles and New York, in step with the firm’s growth and diversification plan. The merger with D’Ancona accelerates that growth and places the firm among the largest law firms in Chicago.
For D’Ancona & Pflaum, the merger provides an important national platform for enhancing client service and adds significant depth and breadth in areas such as labor and employment, employee benefits, patent and intellectual property, international tax, real estate investment trusts, venture capital and construction litigation. Seyfarth’s nine offices nationwide and its office in Brussels, Belgium, work together seamlessly to deliver comprehensive legal services to national and international clients. By joining this nationally integrated team, the D’Ancona attorneys add an important dimension to the services they offer.
