The Chicago legal market is going through something of a shake-up. Not only have new firms such as LeBoeuf Lamb Greene & MacRae landed on its doorstep, but transatlantic mergers of firms such as Piper Rudnick – whose largest office is in Chicago – and the erstwhile Mayer Brown & Platt, which merged in 2002 with London’s Rowe & Maw, have broadened the scope of the city’s firms.
On 18 October 2004, Piper Rudnick sealed its merger with Gray Cary Ware & Freidenrich, creating a pan-US firm across 20 offices and giving Piper access to Gray Cary’s 400-lawyer West Coast technology practice. Then in December, the merger of DLA and Piper Rudnick Gray Cary was sealed.
