The acquisition of Boston-based Bingham McCutchen by Philadelphia’s Morgan, Lewis & Bockius has been touted largely as a combination of two leading Am Law 100 firms with the majority of their operations in the U.S. But the deal also included three offices in Asia, and questions remain as to what’s in store for those offices going forward.
The months-long back and forth between the two firms began with merger talks over the summer and culminated with Morgan Lewis’ strategic recruitment of 510 of Bingham’s roughly 675 lawyers last month. Now Bingham is no more and the new Morgan Lewis employs nearly 2,000 lawyers in 28 offices worldwide, including Beijing, Tokyo and Hong Kong, with the latter office added through the acquisition.
