Cooley Godward has announced it is to merge with New York litigation boutique Kronish Lieb Weiner & Hellman, securing the Californian tech leader’s long-awaited Manhattan launch.

The tie-up, which goes live on 1 October under the banner Cooley Godward Kronish, will create a 550-lawyer national practice and comes after several years in which Cooley had sized up mergers with a handful of very different legal firms.