Dickstein Shapiro on the Verge of Merger

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Summary: Dickstein Shapiro is strongly considering merging by the end of the year.

Oft troubled firm Dickstein Shapiro remains undefeated despite losing a leader, Dennis Hastert, a former House Speaker, who plead guilty to lying to the FBI; and despite the massive exodus of partners, depleting their number from 343 attorneys in 2012 to the current 160. Nevertheless, the firm is eager to merge, and has been courting a few likely candidates.

  

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Bryan Cave and Locke Lord and Perkins Coie are amidst the candidates for possible mergers, and both would frankly be well served by Dickstein’s strong D.C. presence.

Though partners are reporting that something is going to happen, and in 2015 nevertheless, the firm has not yet taken a vote on the merger. We’re not to that stage yet.

Dickstein has held strong despite losing many partners to Arent Fox, Kay Scholer, Lowenstein Sandler, and of course Greenberg Traurig, who naturally enough, grabbed most of Dickstein’s lobbying practice in 2014. They’ve kept strong because they hold on to capital contributions for three years after a partner leaves, and further, they’ve had a relatively low monthly payroll draw form partners, at about $175,000.

Further, they’ve come up from 2013, with a windfall of $1.1 million per partner this year, a $340,000 increase compared to last year. So they are starting to look likely, interesting, a little sexy to the likes of Bryan Cave or Lock Lord. Yet we will see how it goes.