Boston-based national litigation boutique Manning Gross + Massenburg is eyeing the busy St. Louis metropolitan area through a tie-up with regional firm Kurowski Shultz.

The merger, announced Thursday, will create a combined firm with 14 coast-to-coast offices and 105 attorneys when completed in January. For Manning Gross, which has been expanding rapidly for the last decade, the move gives it a presence in “one of the most intense litigation areas in the country,” according to name partner John Manning.

John Manning.