Facing the same changing business environment, two of Arnold & Porter’s and Covington’s longtime DC peers chose a different approach. Hogan took its substantial corporate practice and leveraged it into a global presence. “Today, that is a huge advantage that we have,” says J Warren Gorrell, the firm’s managing partner.

WilmerHale (then known as Wilmer Cutler & Pickering) put aside concerns about firm ‘culture’ long enough to merge with Boston’s Hale and Dorr in 2004.