Big law firms launch transatlantic merger

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By Sara Merken

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REUTERS/Denis Balibouse/File Photo

Herbert Smith Freehills and Kramer Levin have finalized the latest major law firm merger of recent years, combining to form a 2,700-lawyer firm with over $2 billion in revenue. 

The combination of New York-founded Kramer Levin and Herbert Smith Freehills, a larger firm with UK and Australian roots, continues a move toward consolidation in the industry as law firms seek scale to compete across major markets and practice areas. Read more about law firm merger activity.

Justin D'Agostino, global CEO of the combined firm, said in an interview that Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer wants to expand its U.S. work in practice areas such as private equity and litigation, arbitration and white-collar crime.

REUTERS/Chris Helgren/File Photo

More than 200 people who took California's disastrous February bar exam will go from failing to passing under a new round of grading changes approved on Friday, boosting the test's overall pass rate from 56% to 63%—nearly double the state's historical average of 35%.

The grading change affecting 230 test takers is the State Bar of California's latest attempt to mitigate the fallout of its February test, which was plagued with technical and logistical problems. That exam has sparked several lawsuits, including at least two filed by test takers and one filed by the state bar against the testing company that administered it. Read more from Karen Sloan.

The U.S. has given its blessing to Syria to bring foreign jihadist ex-rebels into the national army … Tesla executives questioned Elon Musk after he denied killing a planned $25,000 EV project, sources say … Britain unveiled a radical defense overhaul to meet new threats … Apple challenged what it called an "unreasonable" EU order to open up to rivals … Bristol Myers agreed to pay up to $11.1 billion in a deal with BioNTech to shake up cancer immunotherapy … And Sanofi agreed to buy biopharma group Blueprint for up to $9.5 billion. Plus, "Forest Blizzard" versus "Fancy Bear": cyber companies hope to untangle weird hacker nicknames.

sara.merken@thomsonreuters.com

@saramerken

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