#48 The Legal Profession This Week - Clyde & Co and BLM Merger Finalised​

By Dheepa​

Clyde & Co and BLM Merger Finalised

Early this week, Clyde & Co and BLM finalised their highly anticipated merger. The firms have been discussing the merger since 2020 and both partnerships have reportedly been voting on the merger throughout March. The newly combined firm will operate under the Clyde & Co name, with an approximate headcount of 2,600 lawyers and revenues totalling £735 million. This means the firm now surpasses the revenue of Silver Circle firms like Ashurst and Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner.

Some argue that the merger makes little sense. Clyde & Co far outweighs BLM in scale. Clyde & Co has 440 equity partners while BLM only has 50, and the former’s PEP figure, £715,000 is three times as high as the latter’s figure of £216,000 (Law.com). According to sources at BLM, Clyde & Co will also be taking on the firm’s high overdraft’s costs and capital loans with the merger. BLM has also notoriously suffered through the pandemic, with almost 10% of its staff going on furlough. The £200,000 PEP mark was only hit because of a sudden shrink in equity partnership by about one fifth of its original size.

Despite the risks above, representatives at Clyde & Co maintain that the merger will pay off. BLM has an impressive client roster, which includes heavyweights like Lloyds Banking Group, Barclays Bank and KFC. The firm’s existing expertise in the insurance sector also compliments Clyde & Co’s own market leading insurance practice. According to Law.com, the merger will create the largest law firm in the casualty insurance space. Although laden with high risks, it seems that the merger could indeed result in better work and opportunities for both firms.

‘Business as usual’ – the notable deals and cases which went ahead this week:

Linklaters is acting alongside White & Case, CMS and Latham & Watkins in the £4.2bn sale of National Grid’s UK gas business. CMS is acting for the consortium of asset management firms acquiring 60% of the business. Latham & Watkins and White & Case are acting for British Columbia Investment Management and Macquarie Asset Management respectively (Law.com)

Kirkland & Ellis is advising Brookfield Asset Management on its purchase of Irish real estate company Hibernia REIT. Irish firm, Arthur Cox, is acting for Hibernia. The deal is valued at £1bn, an approximate 34.4 percent premium on Hibernia’s share price (The Lawyer).


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