Regional law firm Bingham Greenebaum Doll has announced that it will combine with Dentons, the world’s largest law firm, to form Dentons Bingham Greenebaum.
The announcement is part of a broader arrangement that also includes Pittsburgh-based law firm Cohen & Grigsby combining with Dentons and rebranding as Dentons Cohen Grigsby.
The combinations with Cohen & Grigsby and Bingham Greenebaum Doll—including its offices in Lexington, Louisville, Cincinnati, Indianapolis; Jasper, Indiana; and Evansville, Indiana—will grow Dentons' global reach to 181 offices, with more than 10,000 attorneys working in 70 countries. It will also increase Dentons’ domestic presence to 33 locations, and represents a major step in Dentons' goal to establish the first “truly national law firm,” according to Dentons Global CEO Elliott Portnoy, with, eventually, offices in the nation’s top 100 markets.
“Right now, no law firm has offices in all 20 of the largest U.S. legal markets, much less the top 100,” Portnoy said in a prepared statement. “These combinations will better position us to attract and retain top talent across the U.S. and beyond, which in turn will allow us to better serve our clients’ needs.”
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The combinations with the law firms of Bingham Greenebaum Doll and Cohen & Grigsby will increase Dentons global reach to 181 offices.
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The newly announced combinations are a major step in Dentons' plans to establish a "truly national law firm", with, eventually, offices in the nation’s top 100 legal markets.
Dentons’ structure is unique in that there are no central headquarters and no centralized corporate culture. Rather, Dentons expands its reach through a “combination” strategy in which the company is organized as a unified conglomerate of individual partner firms, each with its particular areas of expertise, legal licenses and certifications. Each individual firm operates autonomously, with its own local leadership, rate schedule, structure, and culture, and combines with Dentons for global reach.
Tobin McClamroch
Bingham Greenebaum Doll’s partners will remain partners in the newly formed Dentons Bingham Greenebaum (DBG), as well as become partners in Dentons. Tobin McClamroch will serve as managing partner of DBG and is based in its Indianapolis office. Branden Gross will continue as managing partner of DBG’s Lexington office. Dentons is led by Global Chair Joe Andrew and Global CEO Elliott Portnoy.
Branden Gross
“Unlike a merger or an acquisition, where there’s a headquarters and this is how things are going to be run from now on, this is the opposite,” Gross said. Dentons combines “with local and regional firms, and those firms keep their culture and their clients, but it gives them a bigger footprint and reach.”
Previously, if a locally based corporate client needed legal assistance in exporting its products to China, for example, or with contracts in New York, Bingham Greenebaum Doll would research and recommend local counsel in those cities. The firm also frequently acts as local counsel for other firms with clients doing business in the region.
DBG will now be able to offer its clients seamless legal services across state lines and in different countries through affiliated Dentons offices, Gross said, as well as offer its expertise and services to clients in other Dentons offices. DBG can also bring economies to the overall practice by offering its services to a New York-based client, for example, at rates that are much less than is typical for a Manhattan-based firm.
"We think our industrial hemp clients and our manufacturing clients will be assisted right out of the gate on this,” said Gross, who also mentioned potential benefits for clients in equine, energy, utilities, and other sectors where business is increasingly conducted on a national or global level.
“Ultimately we think this is the best way to provide the next level of service to our clients, with both depth and talent and with the emerging technologies to serve those clients.” —Branden Gross, managing partner of DBG’s Lexington office
“Ultimately we think this is the best way to provide the next level of service to our clients, with both depth and talent and with the emerging technologies to serve those clients,” Gross said.
Darby Turner III
"It's a growth opportunity for us, for our attorneys and, more importantly, for our clients,” said Bingham Greenebaum Doll partner Darby Turner III. “We don't have to get outside counsel for them and clients don’t have to manage two or three different law firms. It will all be managed internally.”
Conversations between Dentons and Bingham Greenebaum Doll began about two years ago, Gross said, and were driven, in large part, by the increasing globalization of business, as well as by advancements in technology and in delivering legal services. There are also advantages in centralizing costs associated with expenses such as malpractice insurance and technology licenses, for example, on a national level and for a much larger group.
“It's the continued evolution of the legal practice,” Turner said of positioning DBG as a global firm. “In the 1950s, a three- or four-person firm was considered a huge law firm. And then, in the ’70s, the Louisville firms wanted to come to Lexington and be statewide. In the ’90s, they wanted to be regionals. This is a continuation of that trend. It’s exciting to be on the forefront of the next step in this evolution.”