Nashville's third-largest law firm, 98-year old Boult, Cummings, Conners & Berry, has entered into one of the largest mergers in Nashville legal history.
A year after merger talks with Birmingham-based Bradley Arant Rose & White fell through, Boult partners yesterday voted to approve a merger with the Bradley firm, Alabama's largest. Bradley Arant's shareholders also voted in favor of the transaction yesterday. The new entity, to be known as Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP, will have more than 350 attorneys.
Jay Hardcastle, managing partner of Boult, told NashvillePost.com this morning that the deal came about after his firm spent much of the past two years "courting and being courted" by various firms from outside Nashville, none of which he would name. The current economic downturn did not drive the deal, he said, and it is not expected to generate significant cost savings.
The logic of merging with Bradley became inescapable, Hardcastle said, because both firms recognized "incredible synergies" between their practices in areas such as intellectual property, healthcare, real estate, litigation and business insolvency – the latter being quite a growth industry for law firms these days.
"This particular deal made a lot of sense to our clients, to their clients and to prospective clients," Hardcastle said.
Pending resolution of client conflicts, the merger is set to become effective January 1, 2009.
In August 2007, NashvillePost.com broke the news that Boult was discussing a merger with Bradley Arant, founded in 1871. Three months later, Boult officials said those talks had been discontinued. Sources later said Bradley broke off those talks amid dissent over the deal among its partners. Hardcastle would not comment today on why the negotiations ended.
In addition to its Birmingham headquarters and the Nashville offices on Music Row's Roundabout that Boult occupied in 2003, the firm will have offices in Huntsville and Montgomery, Ala.; Jackson, Miss.; Charlotte, N.C.; and Washington, D.C.
The number of local attorneys involved appears to be greater than in any other merger of law firms that has taken place locally. Boult has more than 100 attorneys, while Bradley Arant has more than 250.
Bradley Arant came in at number 169 on the National Law Journal's 2008 listing of the 250 largest firms in the country, published last month. The only Nashville-based firms to make the list were Waller Lansden Dortch & Davis at number 201 and Bass, Berry & Sims at 204.
The new Bradley Arant Boult Cummings is expected to crack the NLJ's top 150 and to break into American Lawyer's top 200 list of law firms by revenue.
The largest national firm with a major Nashville presence is Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz, number 79 on the NLJ tally; it is listed as having 549 attorneys in total.
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