Texas giant Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld has entered into merger talks with Washington DC-based Shaw Pittman in the latest of a series of national talks that have hit the US legal market in the past two years.

A successful deal would forge a 1,300-lawyer firm with one of the largest legal practices in the capital and a firm-wide turnover of $767m, making it the sixth-largest practice in the US by fee income. The talks are believed to have begun in August.