White & Case hits top ten in Germany with merger

New York firm White & Case has become the first major US law firm to merge with a top-ten German firm - a year after opening in Frankfurt.The deal with 180-lawyer Frankfurt firm Feddersen Laule Ewerwahn Scherzberg Finkelnburg Clemm on 1 July will create a 1,300-lawyer and 265-partner practice, with 37 offices in 26 countries.Feddersens, the eighth largest German partnership by number of lawyers, voted for the merger on 17 June, and White & Case partners voted the following week.Dieter Feddersen, chairman of Feddersen's supervisory partnership board, will be the only Feddersen partner to join the US firm's management board.

The others will become White & Case partners.The firms have set up joint task forces to manage systems integration, training and client service.Feddersens' Potsdam office will close, and transfer to Berlin.

Its Frankfurt, Budapest, Prague, Warsaw and Brussels offices will merge with local White & Case offices.The firm will be called White & Case Feddersen in Germany, the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic from July 1, and White & Case in all its other office.Duane Wall, White & Case's managing partner, said: 'Germany is the third largest economy in the world.

Feddersen's clients are rapidly restructuring and seeking opportunities in the capital markets of the US, UK and elsewhere.'

Anne Mizzi